CEE National Standards
High School Economics Curriculum Aligned to All 18 CEE National Standards
Rapunzl's high school economics curriculum covers every one of the 18 CEE Voluntary National Content Standards in Economics. All 126 high school benchmarks are taught across 10 modules in a 12-week semester, and the explorer below shows exactly which module teaches each benchmark, so you can verify coverage line by line.
How does Rapunzl cover all 18 economics standards?
Every CEE standard is assigned to exactly one Rapunzl module, and every module slots into a set week of the semester. That one-to-one ownership means there is no ambiguity about where a benchmark gets taught: each of the 126 high school benchmarks maps to a specific module and week in the course progression, along with specific assessment questions to address learning gaps.
18
CEE national standards covered
Scarcity through Fiscal Policy
126
High school benchmarks mapped
Every 'know' and 'use' statement
10
Economics modules
Each with activities & assessments
12
Weeks in the full sequence
Fits a standard semester
What are the CEE Voluntary National Content Standards in Economics?
The Voluntary National Content Standards in Economics are the Council for Economic Education's framework for K-12 economics instruction: 18 standards, each broken into grade-level benchmarks, that start at scarcity and decision-making and end at monetary and fiscal policy. Most state economics standards borrow their structure and much of their language from this framework, which makes it the common yardstick for judging whether an economics curriculum is complete.
Each high school benchmark comes in two parts. The first states what students will know: the concept itself. The second states what students will use that knowledge to do, which is the applied skill a teacher can actually assess.
View CEE StandardsWhat does every benchmark look like inside the curriculum?
Open a standard to read each benchmark's full text: what students will know, and what they will use that knowledge to do. Beneath each standard is a link to the specific module which satisfied the learning requirement.
| Benchmark | Students will know that… | Students will use this knowledge to… |
|---|---|---|
| 1.H.1 | Resources are scarce, so producing more of one good or service means producing less of another good or service. | Explain what a country that produces only two goods must do in order to produce more of one of those goods, assuming the total quantity of resources and the level of technology remains the same in the country. |
| 1.H.2 | All economic systems strive to achieve a set of broad social goals that include economic freedom, efficiency, equity, growth, security, and stability. Societies design their economic systems based on how they prioritize the six broad social goals. The success of the system in achieving the prioritized goals determines how well it improves the quality of life for its citizens. | Analyze data such as real GDP, GDP/capita, unemployment rate, infant mortality rate, literacy rate, and the Gini index to evaluate the success of various countries in achieving various broad social goals and improving the quality of life of their citizens. |
| Benchmark | Students will know that… | Students will use this knowledge to… |
|---|---|---|
| 2.H.1 | Acting as consumers, producers, workers, savers, investors, and citizens, people respond to incentives in order to allocate their scarce resources in ways that provide them the highest possible net benefits. | Explain how and why consumers, producers, workers, savers, investors, and citizens might respond to an increase in the minimum wage, an increase in sales tax, and an increase in interest rates. |
| 2.H.2 | Choices made by individuals, firms, or government officials are constrained by the resources they can use. | Explain how income constraints and opportunity costs influence high school seniors’ post-secondary decisions and what the potential long-term impacts of their choices are on their future careers and personal outcomes. |
| 2.H.3 | Decision-making within different groups, such as small and large firms, labor unions, educational institutions, and nonprofit organizations involves different goals and different rules and constraints. These goals, rules, and constraints influence the benefits and costs of those who work with or for those organizations, and, therefore, their behavior. | Compare and contrast the incentives an individual might face in serving as an elected official, the owner of a small business, the president of a large company, an hourly worker at an auto manufacturer, and the director of a local private charity office in the aftermath of hurricane devastation. |
| 2.H.4 | Choices made by individuals, firms, or government officials often have long-term unintended consequences that can partially or entirely offset or supplement the intended effects of the decision. | Explain how a high school senior’s decision to work 20 hours per week during the school year could reduce their lifetime income. Also, explain why new highway construction may not reduce highway congestion. |
| 2.H.5 | Evaluating the benefits and costs of various allocation methods to select the most suitable one for a specific problem can lead to better individual allocations and a more effective overall allocation system. | Evaluate the benefits and costs of using different allocation methods such as rationing, lottery, achievement-based, need-based, force, first-come/first-served, price, and personal characteristics to resolve a scarcity problem. Then, assess the effectiveness of various methods for allocating organ transplants, hunting and fishing licenses, elective offices, and time with a parent. |
| 2.H.6 | Costs that have already been incurred and benefits that have already been received are sunk and irrelevant for decisions about the future. | Explain why the $100 you originally paid for a concert ticket should not influence the price you are willing to accept when reselling it, should you be unable to attend due to a family emergency. |
| 2.H.7 | While responses to incentives are usually predictable, because people normally pursue their self-interest, most individuals put some weight on the welfare of others. | Explain why some people decide to give to charities. |
| 2.H.8 | Risk refers to the uncertainty of outcomes associated with economic decisions. It encompasses favorable and unfavorable outcomes such as gains and losses. Risk arises due to different factors, including market fluctuations, policy changes, technological advancements, and natural disasters. | Research recent news articles related to risks faced by individuals, businesses, or governments. Identify the type of risk (market risk, financial risk, regulatory risk, technological risk, or environmental risk) and explain how decisions taken by individuals, businesses, and governments were impacted by these risks. |
| 2.H.9 | People sometimes fail to treat gains and losses equally, placing extra emphasis on losses, which can affect people’s attitudes and decisions. | Explain why some people might view $100 found on the street differently than $100 that has been lost out of one’s pocket. |
| 2.H.10 | Individuals tend to rely heavily on the first piece of information offered (anchoring) when making subsequent decisions. | Explain why car dealers post high prices on their cars when they are willing to sell them for less. Explain why when haggling over the price of a good, the seller starts at a price higher than what the seller is actually willing to accept. |
| Benchmark | Students will know that… | Students will use this knowledge to… |
|---|---|---|
| 3.H.1 | Transaction costs are costs (not to be confused with the price of the good or service) that are associated with the purchase of a good or service, such as the cost of locating buyers or sellers, negotiating the terms of an exchange, and ensuring that the exchange occurs on the agreed upon terms. When transaction costs increase, trade decreases. | Identify transaction costs associated with the purchase of a good or service and explain why each of the following lower transaction costs: no shipping fees when ordering online, using payment apps on a phone, websites that objectively review and compare products. |
| Benchmark | Students will know that… | Students will use this knowledge to… |
|---|---|---|
| 4.H.1 | The market price and quantity sold is determined by the interaction of supply and demand, and both market price and quantity can be affected by government policies. | Explain how a tax on drinks with added sugar would impact the price of those drinks or what happens to the price of a ride-share when a city limits how many ride-share drivers are allowed to work at a given time. |
| 4.H.2 | A shortage occurs when buyers want to purchase more than producers want or are able to provide, which puts an upward pressure on price. A surplus occurs when producers want to sell more than buyers want or are able to purchase, which puts a downward pressure on price. | Explain why the development of artificial intelligence (AI) could contribute to a global shortage of semi-conductors used in computers. Explain why the COVID-19 pandemic and the work-from-home movement led to a surplus of commercial office space in many large cities. |
| 4.H.3 | Demand for a product changes when there is a change in consumers’ incomes, preferences, expectations, the prices of related products, or the number of consumers in a market. | Predict the change in the demand for attending college if graduating high schoolers decide to go straight into the workforce, if teenagers start to believe college is not worth it, if the government starts subsidizing training for careers in fields in which college degrees are not required, or the number of high school graduates increases. |
| 4.H.4 | Supply of a product changes when there is a change in the cost of the productive resources used to make the product, the technology used to make the product, the expected profit opportunities available to producers from selling other products, or the number of sellers in a market. | Predict the change in the supply of electric vehicles when rare minerals used to make batteries become more expensive, when new state-of-the-art machines are used in the vehicle production process, when the price of gas-powered vehicles increases, or when more car manufacturers begin producing electric vehicles. |
| 4.H.5 | Changes in supply or demand for a good or service cause the prices of the good or service to change; as a result, buyers and sellers adjust their purchase and sales decisions. | Explain why restaurants might react to an increase in the minimum wage and how consumers would respond to changes made by the restaurant. Explain why consumers might react to a new healthy-eating trend that emphasizes home cooking and how restaurants might respond to changes made by consumers. |
| 4.H.6 | Price elasticity of demand measures how responsive quantity demanded is to a change in price. Demand for a good is described as more elastic when the percentage change in quantity demanded is relatively larger for a given percentage change in price. | Predict which one of the following pairs of goods would have a more elastic (more responsive) change in quantity demanded if price went up by 50%: movie tickets vs. insulin, automobiles vs. salt, goods with many substitutes vs. goods with no substitutes. |
| Benchmark | Students will know that… | Students will use this knowledge to… |
|---|---|---|
| 5.H.1 | To maximize profit and determine the profit maximizing level of output and resources, producers must compare the marginal benefits and marginal costs of producing slightly more against producing slightly less. | Explain what would happen if the marginal cost of producing a good is $10 and the market price of the good is $8. |
| 5.H.2 | The level of competition in an industry may be affected by how easily new producers can enter the industry and sell their product. | Identify firms with no, or few, competitors and explain why they have little or no competition. |
| 5.H.3 | Prices in markets dominated by only a few firms, or in the case of monopoly only one firm, tend to be higher due to the lack of competition. | Identify an attempted merger between two firms that the government did not allow because of concerns that less competition would cause prices to get too high in that industry. |
| 5.H.4 | Business decisions are influenced by tax, regulatory, and education policies, as well as policies to support research and development. | Explain how government-sponsored scholarships for engineering majors would affect technology firms. Explain how stricter or looser Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations around bringing new drugs to the market would change the decisions of pharmaceutical companies. |
| 5.H.5 | Competition may be undesirable when a single producer can supply the market at a lower cost than multiple producers. The government may decide to regulate the price, output, and quality of the good in this type of market. In some cases, the government may directly provide the good or service. | Identify the suppliers of water, natural gas (if applicable), and electricity to students’ homes. Explain why, in most cases, only one firm provides these services to their homes and determine if the government supplies any of them. |
| 5.H.6 | Network effects occur when the value of a product or service increases as more people use it. | Name examples of electronic services they use that have more value because a lot of people use the same service. |
| 5.H.7 | Industries with products that have network effects, have control of key resources, or own property rights tend to have fewer firms and, therefore, less competition. | Explain what might happen to mobile phone sales if the students’ cell phones could text or call only other people with the same cell phone service provider. Identify a firm that is a monopoly because of control of a key resource or because of a patent or copyright. |
| Benchmark | Students will know that… | Students will use this knowledge to… |
|---|---|---|
| 6.H.1 | A market is allocatively efficient when it produces the quantity of a good that results in the greatest overall net benefit for society. The resulting equilibrium quantity balances the marginal benefits to society of consuming the good against the marginal costs to society of producing the good. Competitive markets with well-defined property rights for private goods that produce no externalities tend to be allocatively efficient. | Explain why this scenario is likely inefficient: In a country where people prefer corn over peas, corn is produced by a single producer, while peas are produced in a competitive market. |
| 6.H.2 | Market failure occurs when markets allocate resources inefficiently. Causes of market failure include: unclear or unenforced property rights, externalities associated with the production or consumption of a product, public goods, or a lack of competition. | Explain why the following examples result in market failure: international waters for fishing, air pollution, national defense, and monopolies. |
| 6.H.3 | Property rights provide incentives for the owners of goods or resources to take care of them. Resource owners do this by comparing the benefits of current use with the value of preserving the resources for future needs. | Analyze how issuing property rights in certain parts of the ocean may affect the size of fish harvests in those parts of the ocean. |
| 6.H.4 | When externalities occur, the market price of a good does not reflect all the economic costs or benefits associated with the production or consumption of the good. If the price excludes some benefits of a good, too little of the good is produced and consumed. If the price excludes some costs of a good, too much of it is produced and consumed. | Defend the position that relying solely on private schools for K–12 education could lead to less education than society would ideally want. Defend the position that allowing firms to pollute the air as much as they would like could lead to more goods being produced than society would ideally want. |
| 6.H.5 | The quantity of a public good produced in a private market is less than the efficient level because it fails to account for the benefits received by free riders. | Explain why national defense paid for by voluntary subscription fees will result in less national defense than is efficient. |
| 6.H.6 | In a noncompetitive market, firms produce less of a good than in a competitive market because they can raise prices by limiting output. | Explain how the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) tries to influence the world price of oil and what would happen if the countries of OPEC decided to compete against each other. |
| Benchmark | Students will know that… | Students will use this knowledge to… |
|---|---|---|
| 7.H.1 | Governments enact economic policies or programs to achieve various goals, such as efficiency, equity, stability, security, freedom, and growth. However, policymakers often face trade-offs between these goals when deciding which policies or programs to pursue. | Explain why breaking up a monopoly may improve efficiency but interfere with economic freedom. Explain why a price ceiling on apartments (rent controls) may work to improve equity, but may result in inefficiency. |
| 7.H.2 | To determine the optimal level of a public policy program, voters and government officials should compare the marginal benefits and marginal costs of providing a little more or a little less of the program’s services. In some cases, the best option may be no government intervention at all. | Brainstorm ideas for making your school building more attractive. Use the concepts of marginal cost and marginal benefit to evaluate proposals and select the best proposal. |
| 7.H.3 | An important role for government in the economy is to define, establish, and enforce property rights. Property rights to a good, service, or resource include the authority to exclude others from its use and the ability to transfer ownership or usage rights to others. | Predict what would likely happen if the penalties for shoplifting were reduced. Predict what would happen to the number of musical artists if copyright laws were not enforced. |
| 7.H.4 | Government laws establish the rules and institutions in which markets operate. These include such things as property rights, collective bargaining rules, laws about discrimination, and laws governing institutions such as marriage and families. | Explain how laws such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, right-to-work laws, child labor laws, and parental-leave policies have affected labor markets. |
| 7.H.5 | In the United States, the federal government enforces antitrust laws and regulations to try to maintain effective levels of competition. | Explain why the Federal Trade Commission might oppose the purchase of one large corporation by its closest competitor. Explain what the effects might be on consumers, producers, and workers if the merger were allowed. |
| 7.H.6 | Governments may implement policies to improve outcomes caused by externalities or other circumstances that lead to market inefficiencies. | Explain why the government may put a tax on firms based on the amount they pollute. |
| 7.H.7 | Governments often provide public goods because private markets struggle to collect revenue from free riders—individuals who use the good or service without paying. Instead, governments can fund these goods by taxing those who benefit from them. | Explain why local governments provide flood protection that keeps a community safe as opposed to having a private firm build the protection and asking community members to pay for the service through a monthly subscription. |
| 7.H.8 | Governments can correct for the over- or under-production or consumption of a product. Subsidies can help correct for inefficiently low output and taxes can help correct for inefficiently high output. In some cases, the government regulates output directly. | Explain why state and local governments use public money for elementary education, why gasoline is taxed, and why some polluting firms are taxed or regulated. |
| 7.H.9 | Governments often redistribute income directly when society is not satisfied with the income distribution resulting from markets; governments also redistribute income indirectly as unintentional effects of other government actions that affect prices or output levels for various goods and services. | Choose a government assistance program, explain the economic and moral reasons for the program, and then determine which groups in the economy benefit and which groups bear the costs. Describe who benefits and who does not from a state lottery whose funds pay for college scholarships. |
| 7.H.10 | Government-enforced price ceilings and price floors distort price signals and incentives to producers and consumers. Price ceilings below the market price can cause persistent shortages, while price floors above the market price can cause persistent surpluses. | Describe what is likely to happen if the government imposes price- gouging laws during a hurricane or a price floor on agricultural products such as corn. |
| 7.H.11 | Government policy to correct a market inefficiency is not justified economically if the cost of implementing it exceeds its expected benefits. | Decide whether the government should allocate $200,000 to monitor and enforce regulations requiring a business with localized, minimally damaging pollution to reduce its emissions, and defend their position. |
| 7.H.12 | Political leaders have incentive to favor programs or policies that provide immediate benefits while deferring costs, and that spread costs widely across large groups while concentrating benefits on small, politically influential groups. | Explain who is helped by an import tariff on steel and who might be hurt. Explain why a political leader would support farm subsidies whose cost is paid by income taxes. |
| Benchmark | Students will know that… | Students will use this knowledge to… |
|---|---|---|
| 8.H.1 | In a labor market, higher wages increase the reward for work but reduce employers’ willingness to hire workers, all else being equal. | Explain the impact of an increase in the minimum wage on students’ desire to get an after-school job and employers’ willingness to hire workers (and on the quantity of labor the employer may want to hire). |
| 8.H.2 | Personal income can be affected by changes in the structure of the economy, including technology, government policies, and the extent of collective bargaining, as well as discrimination. | Analyze data on the rise of automation and artificial intelligence in the manufacturing sector and evaluate how this might have affected the personal incomes of blue-collar workers in the United States in the last decade. |
| 8.H.3 | Income represents the flow of money received over a period of time, while wealth is the stock of accumulated assets minus liabilities at a point in time. | Calculate what happens to income and wealth if a student earns $1,000 working at the state fair, spends $300 on concert tickets, and puts the rest into a savings account. |
| 8.H.4 | Changes in the demand for goods and services often have significant impacts on the job opportunities and incomes of workers in affected industries in the short run. | Use information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook to identify three occupations that are expected to grow and three occupations that are expected to shrink; explain these trends, based on the type of goods and services that are likely to experience heightened demand and those that are likely to experience waning demand. |
| 8.H.5 | Income distribution refers to how total income in the economy is divided among households, often measured by the percentage of total income that households in each income bracket (quintiles) earn. Income distribution is influenced by factors such as education levels, skill levels, market structures, discrimination, inheritance, and government policies. | Analyze the income distribution across the five quintiles for the United States or for other countries using information from the United States Census Bureau or the World Bank. Predict the average education level of people in those five different income brackets. |
| 8.H.6 | Income mobility refers to the upward or downward movement of individuals and households through different income classes over time. Income mobility is influenced by factors such as inequality, economic growth, tax policies, and access to education. | Discuss the extent of income mobility in the modern U.S. economy and identify factors that enable or restrict such mobility. |
| 8.H.7 | Discrimination based on race, gender, or age, among other factors, can create differences in income levels that are not explained solely by economic considerations in labor markets. Discrimination can perpetuate income inequalities and inhibit income mobility for disadvantaged groups. | Discuss how discrimination affects hiring decisions, wage levels, and career advancement in labor markets. |
| 8.H.8 | Labor unions are organizations that represent workers in collective bargaining over issues such as wages, benefits, and working conditions. Labor unions also work to influence labor laws and regulations in market economies. | Explain how major U.S. labor unions emerged, their economic impact, and the bargaining tactics they use to benefit their members and workers in general. Defend arguments for and against the creation and influence of labor unions. |
| Benchmark | Students will know that… | Students will use this knowledge to… |
|---|---|---|
| 9.H.1 | Net exports equal the value of exports (goods and services sold to other countries) minus the value of imports (goods and services bought from other countries). Net exports can be either positive (trade surplus) or negative (trade deficit). | Calculate net exports in the United States for the last five years. Identify whether there has been a trade surplus or trade deficit over these years. |
| 9.H.2 | Although trade barriers typically result in higher costs than benefits, they are often adopted through political processes and supported by people and groups who expect to gain from imposing them. Costs of these barriers often are spread over a large number of people, with each person bearing only a small portion and possibly not recognizing the cost. | Explain why a political leader would support imposing a trade barrier, such as a tariff on imported washing machines, which would benefit a small group of people at the expense of other groups. |
| 9.H.3 | Comparative advantage occurs when a country has a lower opportunity cost of producing a good than another country. | Explain in terms of opportunity costs why the United States is probably better off importing tropical goods such as bananas, coffee, and eucalyptus oil than growing or producing them here. |
| 9.H.4 | A country specializes in producing a good when it has a comparative advantage in the production of that good and can therefore export that good. A mutually beneficial trade occurs when two countries engage in trade such that the terms of trade lie between the opportunity costs of production of the two countries. | Decide which countries would specialize in a good when the opportunity cost of one unit of corn in country A is two units of oranges, and the opportunity cost of one unit of corn in country B is four units of oranges. Describe what would happen when the production of corn is moved from one country to the other. |
| 9.H.5 | The goods or services that a country can produce at lower opportunity cost and have a comparative advantage in their production depend on factors such as available resources, technology, and political and economic institutions. | Use their understanding of available resources, technology, and political and economic institutions in the U.S. and other countries to explain why the U.S. no longer has a comparative advantage in the production of shoes. |
| 9.H.6 | Globalization and regionalization impact international trade in different ways. For example, globalization promotes worldwide interconnectedness, global trade, technological advancement, and cultural exchange. Regionalization, on the other hand, emphasizes economic cooperation and integration within specific areas, enhancing competitiveness, stability, and development within a region. | Explain the difference between globalization and regionalization and the impact of each on international trade patterns. Research the similarities and differences among trade blocs such as the European Union (EU), United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). |
| 9.H.7 | The exchange rate is the price of one country’s currency in relation to another country’s currency. Like other prices, exchange rates for most major currencies are determined by the forces of supply and demand. | Compare the price of shirts purchased in the United Kingdom, Japan, and South Africa by converting the price in local currency to U.S. dollars using current exchange rates. |
| 9.H.8 | When the exchange rate between two currencies changes, the relative prices of the goods and services traded among countries using those currencies change; as a result, some groups gain and others lose. | Describe what would happen to the quantity of exports of a good if the exchange rate for an exporting country depreciates (in other words, if the country’s currency can be bought with less foreign currency). |
| Benchmark | Students will know that… | Students will use this knowledge to… |
|---|---|---|
| 10.H.1 | The profit motive drives businesses to innovate and seek new technologies that improve efficiency and reduce costs. Governments can support businesses’ initiatives to develop new technologies by funding research and development, providing tax incentives and subsidies, creating favorable environments, and investing in human capital. | Explain how the desire for profit leads to innovation and technological changes and the resulting impact on a company’s success and market position. Explain why the federal government provides grants to many colleges and universities. |
| 10.H.2 | Technology can mitigate environmental challenges and promote sustainability, but it can also impact society and the environment in unexpected ways. | Explain how technological advancements can address environmental and sustainability challenges such as air pollution, water scarcity, deforestation, and plastic waste. Explain how the Industrial Revolution, while providing increased material living standards and growth, also resulted in negative environmental consequences. |
| 10.H.3 | Artificial intelligence is an example of a technology that can transform the workforce, affecting the way people approach various tasks and processes. It can enhance human capabilities and support certain tasks, boosting productivity, or it can serve as a replacement for specific tasks. AI can also create new job opportunities and lead to skill transformation. | Explain how specific tasks or processes could potentially be complemented or substituted by AI technologies in various jobs or industries. Explain how workers can adapt to changes driven by technology, such as AI. Identify valuable skills that human workers should retain to remain competitive in the evolving job market. |
| 10.H.4 | Digital technologies have changed the way businesses operate and interact with consumers by lowering barriers to entry and reducing transaction costs. | Analyze how various technologies have contributed to the success of an e-commerce business, including digital platforms, mobile devices, cloud computing, and digital payment systems. Explain how online influencers and small businesses use social media platforms to leverage their opportunities for marketing and economic success. |
| 10.H.5 | Technological advancements have facilitated globalization and increased interconnectedness across the world, leading to increased integration and interdependence of economies. | Describe how technological advancements in communication, transportation, digital platforms, e-commerce, and knowledge-sharing have led to a more globalized economy. |
| 10.H.6 | Technology can narrow gaps in education and improve economic well-being and social equity by promoting access to information and markets. However, disparities in access and utilization of technology, online privacy and security risks, and job displacement can worsen economic and social inequities. | Research the digital divide in specific communities by reviewing reports by institutions like the United Nations. Explain the role of government, private sector, and nonprofit organizations in promoting digital inclusion. |
| Benchmark | Students will know that… | Students will use this knowledge to… |
|---|---|---|
| 11.H.1 | Nominal GDP uses current prices to calculate the value of GDP. Because prices can change over time, distorting nominal GDP, economists use real GDP which calculates the value of GDP by holding the prices of goods and services constant over time. | Explain how inflation affects nominal GDP and real GDP. |
| 11.H.2 | Real GDP per capita is the most commonly used measure for comparing changes in material living standards over time. | Explain how real GDP per capita can be used to compare how production in the economy has changed over a period of time, such as the student’s lifetime. Describe the relationship between real GDP per capita and the material standard of living by collecting and examining the real GDP per capita for a variety of countries. |
| 11.H.3 | Because one person’s expenditure on a new good or service is another person’s income, GDP can also be measured by the total income earned in an economy by the various factors of production. | Draw and label a circular flow diagram and explain the interrelated roles of households, businesses, and government in the economy. Using the circular flow diagram, identify the expenditure and income approaches to calculating GDP. |
| 11.H.4 | GDP does not account for environmental damage from production. | Discuss the differences in how a country’s measured GDP is affected by preserving a rainforest compared to clear-cutting it. |
| 11.H.5 | Real GDP per capita does not accurately reflect the actual distribution of income nor does it capture other aspects of well-being. | Explain why a country’s GDP per capita being $30,000 does not preclude a situation in which a large portion of the country’s population is living in poverty. Give examples of measures of well-being such as life expectancy, access to clean water/air, feelings of security, freedom, health of children, and quality of education that are not captured in GDP per capita. |
| 11.H.6 | The output of a nation’s economy is determined over time by such things as the size and skills of its labor force, the size and quality of its stock of capital goods, the quantity and quality of its natural resources, its technological capabilities, and its legal and cultural institutions. Potential GDP refers to the long-term production capacity of the economy given these factors. | Compare and contrast the factors that contribute to GDP for a country with a high GDP per capita with a country with a lower GDP per capita. Discuss some of the challenges that the lower GDP country will need to overcome to become like the higher GDP country. |
| Benchmark | Students will know that… | Students will use this knowledge to… |
|---|---|---|
| 12.H.1 | Changes in total employment are an important indicator of economic performance. | Collect data on employment and on real GDP over some ten-year time period, and identify the relationship between the two. |
| 12.H.2 | Unemployment in an economy creates immediate difficulties for households who find it hard to pay their expenses. If people are unemployed for a long time, they lose skills, employability, and may incur harm to their psychological well-being. | Explain why a computer developer may find it hard to get a job if they have not been working for of the last three years. List difficulties individuals and households may encounter if they face unemployment. |
| 12.H.3 | Not everyone decides to participate in the labor force. The labor force participation rate measures the percentage of the available workers who are currently working or actively seeking work (i.e., are in the labor force). | Identify reasons why individuals may decide not to enter the labor force. Explain the impact of fewer high school graduates going to college on the labor force participation rate. |
| 12.H.4 | The unemployment rate is an imperfect measure of unemployment. It does not include workers whose job prospects are so poor that they become discouraged from seeking jobs and leave the labor force. Also, it does not account for part-time workers who are looking for full-time work and are, therefore, underemployed. | Explain how an unemployed worker that becomes discouraged and stops looking for work effects the level of employment, the level of unemployment, the labor force, and the unemployment rate. |
| 12.H.5 | Unemployment rates differ for people of different ages, races/ ethnicities, and genders. Work experience, education, training, skills, and discrimination impact a worker’s ability to find a job. | Explain why unemployment rates for workers of different ages, races/ ethnicities, and genders differ from each other. Find data to provide examples of the differences in unemployment rate for workers of different ages, races/ethnicities, or gender. |
| 12.H.6 | The unemployment rate will never be zero because there are always some people changing jobs, just starting to look for jobs, or adjusting to changes in skills needed by employers. As a result, unemployment exists even when the economy is at full employment. This level of unemployment is called the natural rate of unemployment. | Explain what is meant by the natural rate of unemployment. Explain how new job-search technology that helps workers and firms find each other faster would reduce the natural rate of unemployment. |
| Benchmark | Students will know that… | Students will use this knowledge to… |
|---|---|---|
| 13.H.1 | Debit cards, credit cards, and payment apps are payment methods that transfer account balances to conduct economic transactions and are not considered to be money. | Explain that when a buyer uses a credit card for a purchase, the seller receives money from the credit card issuer’s bank account. The buyer must pay the credit card issuer back at a later date. Explain why when a student uses a payment app, they are accessing their own bank balances. |
| 13.H.2 | Governments control the supply of money through their central banks. | Investigate the names of other central banks around the world. Explain why each country only has one central bank. |
| 13.H.3 | Even though money serves a valuable role in the economy, if a central bank introduces too much money into the economy relative to its growth, in the long run, prices will rise. | Explain why prices go up after participating in a game where students use play money to bid for a limited number of candy bars. In the first round, a specific amount of play money is given and an auction is conducted. In the second round of the auction, the amount of play money is doubled, but the amount of candy remains the same. |
| 13.H.4 | Cryptocurrencies offer the possibility of alternatives to conventional money, but are not officially categorized as money. Reasons why people use cryptocurrencies include: financial privacy concerns, international payments, and speculation. | Use the ideas of medium of exchange, store of value, and unit of account to decide if cryptocurrencies can be classified as money. Explain how a cryptocurrency is more of a speculative asset rather than a medium of exchange, and that this may or may not change over time. |
| Benchmark | Students will know that… | Students will use this knowledge to… |
|---|---|---|
| 14.H.1 | Companies can raise funds by issuing shares of stock, which represent ownership in the company. Investors purchase stocks because they hope the company will do well and pay dividends or because they hope to sell the shares later at a higher price to earn a capital gain. | Explain how a company might issue shares of its stock in order to raise funds, and why investors will likely be willing to buy those shares. Use the internet to find the stocks that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Pick two companies and see if they pay a dividend, and if the price of the stock has risen or fallen so far this year. |
| 14.H.2 | Investors buy and sell shares of stocks on the stock market. Investors hope to earn a capital gain, but sometimes suffer a capital loss when they sell at a lower price than the purchase price. Because investing in stocks involves risk, the return on average is higher in the long run than safer investments such as U.S. Treasury bonds. | Pick a company in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and compare the rate of return over a three-year period to the interest that could have been earned on a U.S. Treasury bond. |
| 14.H.3 | Companies and governments can borrow funds by issuing bonds. The issuer of the bond must pay bondholders interest. Investors may buy bonds directly from the issuer of the bond or from bondholders who want to sell their previously purchased bonds in the bond market. | Explain how a corporate bond is like an IOU that states a specific interest rate. Explain why bondholders expect to earn interest in return for lending their funds. |
| 14.H.4 | When bonds are sold before maturity, the price the seller receives is determined by supply and demand in the bond market. Bond prices and market interest rates have an inverse relationship: When market interest rates rise, bond prices fall; when market interest rates fall, bond prices rise. | Explain why a bond that pays a fixed interest rate of 5% is more attractive and will increase in price when the market rate of interest decreases from 5% to 4%. |
| 14.H.5 | The real interest rate is the nominal or current market interest rate minus the rate of inflation. The real interest rate expresses how much the purchasing power of the amount borrowed or saved rises or falls. | Collect data on the rate of inflation and interest rates for 30-year mortgages over the past 15 years. Using this information, estimate the real rate of interest paid on those mortgages in each of the years. |
| 14.H.6 | Higher real interest rates increase the rewards for saving and make borrowing more expensive. | Explain what happens to the purchasing power of your savings if the real interest rate increases from 2% to 5%. |
| 14.H.7 | Real interest rates are normally greater than zero because people must be compensated for deferring the use of resources from the present into the future. | Explain why savers will seek to earn more than the inflation rate when looking for a savings or money market account. |
| 14.H.8 | Riskier loans command higher interest rates than safer loans because of the greater chance of default on the repayment of a riskier loan. | Explain why there are usually differences in interest rates for individuals with high and low credit ratings. |
| 14.H.9 | Higher real interest rates make loans costlier and thereby reduce business investment spending and consumer spending on housing, cars, and other major purchases. | Identify periods when real interest rates increased and speculate how this change in real interest rates affected business investment and consumer spending. |
| 14.H.10 | Real interest rates rise and fall with shifts in the demand for funds by borrowers and supply of funds from savers. | Describe how an increased demand for housing by households might increase the real interest rate for mortgages, and how increased savings by households can lead to a decrease in the real interest rate for savings accounts. |
| 14.H.11 | Expectations of higher inflation can cause nominal interest rates to rise. | Explain their answer to the following question: If you were going to lend $100 to someone for a year, would you ask for more or less interest if you expected inflation to rise faster than in the previous year? |
| Benchmark | Students will know that… | Students will use this knowledge to… |
|---|---|---|
| 15.H.1 | Disinflation is a decrease in the inflation rate or a slowdown in the upward movement of prices for goods and services in the economy. | Describe the difference between inflation (rising price level), disinflation (falling inflation rate), and deflation (falling price level). |
| 15.H.2 | When people’s incomes increase at a slower rate than the inflation rate, their purchasing power declines. When people’s incomes increase at a faster rate than the inflation rate, their purchasing power increases. | Explain that if inflation rises, but income remains fixed, people will not be able to buy the same number of goods and services over time. Describe what would happen to purchasing power if inflation is 3% and people’s incomes increase by 8%. |
| 15.H.3 | Inflation occurs when the overall demand for goods and services in an economy increases or the overall supply of goods and services in an economy decreases. | Explain what happens to the price level if people attempt to increase their spending but the number of goods and services in the economy remains the same. |
| 15.H.4 | Increases in production costs (including wages and prices of raw materials) can cause the inflation rate to rise if firms are able to pass along higher costs to consumers. | Explain what can happen to inflation when businesses face an increase in energy costs. |
| 15.H.5 | When consumers, businesses, and investors expect higher prices, their behavior can be self-fulfilling, pushing prices and inflation higher. | Explain how they might react if they had planned to buy a computer in three months but learned that computer prices are expected to rise before then. Explain how a business might change its price if it expects its costs to increase by 10% over the next year. Explain how this might affect the broader economy. |
| 15.H.6 | Unexpected inflation hurts savers and people on fixed incomes; it benefits people who have borrowed money at a fixed rate of interest. | Explain who would be harmed and who would benefit from an unexpected increase in inflation from 2% to 8% in each of the following scenarios: Asher’s retirement income is fixed at $24,000 a year, Mona borrowed $5,000 last year at 5% and must pay it back at the end of this year, John lent the $5,000 to Mona last year and will be paid back at the end of this year. |
| 15.H.7 | Inflation, even when expected, imposes costs on consumers as they spend time and energy to minimize their cash holdings by depositing funds in interest-bearing accounts or seeking higher- yielding investments. | Explain why when inflation is very high, people try to invest their money, buy assets, or exchange currencies to protect themselves— and how those activities have both monetary and opportunity costs. |
| 15.H.8 | Hyperinflation is a very rapid rise in the overall price level which results in an extremely high rate of inflation. People often abandon a hyperinflated currency for tradable goods or another country’s currency. | Examine the historical cases of hyperinflation and explain the effects on the economies and currencies of countries that have experienced hyperinflation. |
| Benchmark | Students will know that… | Students will use this knowledge to… |
|---|---|---|
| 16.H.1 | Economic growth that raises per capita output can potentially alleviate poverty and raise standards of living. | Discuss the implications for the living standards of people in China when Chinese workers are producing more per person today than they did 50 years ago. |
| 16.H.2 | Investing in new physical or human capital can increase the rate of economic growth. | Explain how an electric car manufacturer who wants to expand production in the United States can do so by building a bigger factory, using more industrial robots, or hiring more talented engineers and designers to improve the speed and quality of production. |
| 16.H.3 | Investing in research that generates innovation and new technology can increase the rate of economic growth. | Explain how research into using artificial intelligence can help workers become more productive and help the economy produce more goods and services. |
| 16.H.4 | Property rights, including intellectual property rights (patents and copyrights), play an important role in creating the conditions for increased investment. | Explain how a farmer would be reluctant to cultivate land if that land could be taken over by a neighbor with more powerful political connections. Explain how copyrights and patent protection affect the incentives to invest. |
| 16.H.5 | Aging populations and declining birth rates with consequent declines in the labor force can hinder economic growth. Improved health and welfare of workers can help economic growth. | Find data for declining birth rates and aging demographics in a country like Japan or South Korea and explain why this would lead to a flattening of the growth path of the economy. |
| 16.H.6 | A recession is a short-term decline in economic activity within an economy. An expansion occurs when economic activity increases within an economy. | Use Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) to generate a graph of real GDP for the United States since 1960 and visualize both the sustained economic growth and the periods of recession. |
| 16.H.7 | A business cycle refers to a period of recession—when real GDP declines and hits a trough—followed by a period of expansion that continues until a peak is reached and the cycle begins anew. | Sketch a graph of real GDP to illustrate a complete business cycle. The graph should label the trough, peak, recession, and expansion. |
| 16.H.8 | During recessions, unemployment rates typically rise. In expansions, unemployment rates typically fall. | Given a graph of the unemployment rate in a country, label the periods in which economic expansions are likely and which are likely recessions. |
| 16.H.9 | Recessions can be caused by a number of factors that affect either the overall demand or supply in an economy. | Identify examples of recessions in the past half-century that were caused by the following factors: supply chain disruptions from a global pandemic, a collapse in real estate prices, a stock market collapse, a sharp increase in oil prices, and monetary policy actions to reduce inflation. |
| 16.H.10 | While inflation tends to fall during a recession, sometimes a recession itself may be caused by a factor of production whose prices have been pushed up. | Use data on inflation rates to compare and contrast how inflation behaved during the U.S. recessions in the 1970s and 80s, compared to how inflation behaved during later recessions. |
| Benchmark | Students will know that… | Students will use this knowledge to… |
|---|---|---|
| 17.H.1 | The Federal Reserve System is composed of three entities: the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, which oversees all aspects of the Federal Reserve; the 12 Federal Reserve Banks, which examine and supervise financial institutions, act as lenders of last resort, and provide U.S. payments system services; and the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), which is responsible for determining U.S. monetary policy. | Use a map of the Federal Reserve System to determine the district where the student lives and the location of their Federal Reserve Bank. Use paper currency to identify which Federal Reserve Bank issued that bill. Discuss the importance of the Fed’s role in the payments system. |
| 17.H.2 | To achieve its price stability goal, the Federal Open Market Committee conducts monetary policy to achieve inflation that is low and steady over time. | Find the Federal Reserve’s current inflation target and explain why that target is better than a 10% target. |
| 17.H.3 | To achieve its maximum employment goal, the Federal Reserve uses policies to promote the highest level of employment that the economy can sustain while maintaining a low and stable inflation rate over time. | Discuss what kind of data and information the Federal Reserve might consider when deciding whether the economy is at maximum employment. |
| 17.H.4 | The Federal Open Market Committee conducts monetary policy by setting the target range for the federal funds rate. The federal funds rate is the interest rate banks and other institutions charge each other for overnight loans. | Identify a recently announced change in the federal funds rate target range and use the relevant FOMC statement to explain why this change was made. |
| 17.H.5 | The Federal Reserve’s primary monetary policy tool is the interest it pays banks to keep reserves at the Federal Reserve, called the interest on reserve balances (IORB). The Federal Reserve implements policy by using the IORB interest rate to steer the federal funds rate to the FOMC’s target range. | Look up the federal funds rate and see how it relates to the interest on reserve balances (IORB) rate that can be found on the Implementation Note that follows FOMC press statements. |
| 17.H.6 | The Federal Open Market Committee tends to increase its target range for the federal funds rate when inflation is too high. The FOMC tends to lower its target range for the federal funds rate when unemployment is high and the inflation rate is low. | Research the most recent period of high inflation in the United States and summarize the actions the Federal Reserve took to bring inflation down. |
| 17.H.7 | Monetary policy actions by the Federal Reserve lead to changes in interest rates and broader financial conditions. These changes influence the spending and investing decisions of consumers and producers, which then influences overall levels of employment and prices in the economy. | Explain how changes in monetary policy that increase interest rates affect consumer and business decisions, the path of economic activity, and people’s lives. |
| Benchmark | Students will know that… | Students will use this knowledge to… |
|---|---|---|
| 18.H.1 | Fiscal policies are decisions about how to structure or change the federal government’s spending and taxation levels. Fiscal policy decisions are intended to influence national levels of output, employment, and prices. | Define what is meant by fiscal policy and explain why historical examples of fiscal policies, including the Great Depression era’s Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the COVID-19 era’s CARES Act, were adopted. |
| 18.H.2 | Taxes change the spending behavior of consumers and producers. The type of tax is an important factor in how consumers and producers are affected. | Describe how consumer spending would change if the income tax rate were increased. Describe how businesses might change spending on business expansion if taxes on their profits were reduced. |
| 18.H.3 | Governments can impose a wide variety of taxes, including taxes on various types of income, spending, consumption, property, production, value-added, pollution, imports, financial instruments, and wealth. | Research countries or states where taxes such as value-added taxes, pollution taxes, property taxes, and wealth taxes are used. |
| 18.H.4 | The type of tax can affect households differently based on the households’ income level. Taxes can be progressive, proportional, or regressive. | Compare two possible alternatives a state government has to raise $100 billion of revenues: a sales tax or a progressive income tax. Explain the effect of each type of tax on a low-income and a high- income family. |
| 18.H.5 | In the short run, increasing federal spending and/or reducing taxes can promote more employment and output, but these polices also put upward pressure on the price level and interest rates. Decreased federal spending and/or increased taxes tend to lower price levels and interest rates, but they reduce employment and output levels in the short run. | Outline and explain the fiscal policies an economist would recommend to correct for rising unemployment when inflation is under control. |
| 18.H.6 | The federal government’s annual budget is balanced when its revenues from taxes and other sources equal its expenditures. A budget deficit occurs when expenditures exceed revenues, while a budget surplus occurs when revenues exceed expenditures. | Determine what is likely to happen to the federal budget deficit when the economy is growing as opposed to when economic activity is contracting. |
| 18.H.7 | When the government runs a budget deficit, it must borrow to finance that deficit. The federal government funds the deficit by selling Treasury bills, notes, and bonds. | Explain why investors buy Treasury bills, notes, and bonds. Explain how changes in the interest rate can increase the amount owed by the Treasury. |
| 18.H.8 | The national debt is the accumulated sum of all a nation’s past annual deficits and surpluses. | Identify the relationship between a federal budget deficit and the national debt. Explain what happens to the national debt when a country runs a budget surplus. |
Does this economics course also satisfy personal finance requirements?
It can. Every economics module carries a Jump$tart personal finance strand tag alongside its CEE standard, so schools that teach a combined economics-and-personal-finance course can document coverage on both frameworks from the same lessons.
If you want the full picture of how the economics course is built (pacing, topics, and how teachers run it), see the high school economics course page, or browse any module directly from the explorer above.
Economics standards alignment FAQ
Yes. Rapunzl's economics curriculum covers all 18 of the CEE Voluntary National Content Standards in Economics, from Scarcity and Allocation through Fiscal Policy and Taxation. The 126 high school benchmarks are mapped benchmark-by-benchmark to ten modules, and you can inspect every mapping in the explorer on this page.
Yes. The ten economics modules form a standalone 12-week sequence with their own activities, articles, and assessments. Many schools run it as a one-semester economics course. Because every module also carries Jump$tart personal finance strand tags, teachers who already use Rapunzl for personal finance can fold individual economics modules into that course instead.
The full sequence runs 12 weeks, with one module per week except the two-week openers on economic thinking and on work, trade, and technology. Each module is built for roughly a week of class time, so the sequence fits a standard semester with room for review and exams.
Yes. Across the ten modules there are 152 assessment items, 60 classroom activities, and 38 student articles. Each module lists its own counts in the module cards above, and every module page shows its guiding questions and vocabulary.
Every CEE benchmark has two parts: what students will know, and what they will use that knowledge to do. Rapunzl assigns each benchmark to exactly one module, so when a district asks where benchmark 7.H.4 is taught, the answer is one specific module and one specific week. Open any standard in the explorer to read the full text of both parts.
Most state economics standards are adapted from the CEE national framework, so the crosswalk on this page is usually the fastest way to check coverage. If you need a formal alignment to your state's exact language, reach out through the demo form and our team will map it for you.
Teach economics students can see happening
Get free access to all ten economics modules, the benchmark-level crosswalk, and the stock market simulator your students will actually ask to use. Tell us about your school and we'll set up your demo.
Get A Free Educator DemoOr keep exploring: the economics course overview and the full Rapunzl curriculum.
Get In Touch With Rapunzl
Interested in financial literacy but not sure where to begin? Perhaps you have a specific question about Rapunzl’s curriculum or are currently exploring best-practices for implementing financial education in the classroom.
Whatever the reason, we’d love to connect and share our insights after spending over 1,000 hours teaching financial education in high schools across the country.
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Whatever the reason, we’d love to connect and share our insights after spending over 1,000 hours teaching financial education in high schools across the country.
Book a call, drop us a note and let’s connect.
