Economics: Principles and Practices, Student Edition

This is a high-school text, most appropriate for 10th or 11th grades, I would imagine. It does not divide economics into macro and micro. The publisher is Glencoe. The author is Clayton. The latest edition is 2005. The text itself is finely done, clear, and carefully written. Important terms appear in blue, the sections are very short for attention-span challenged students, and there are plenty of groovy pictures, charts, and graphs. Chapters typically have three sections each. Should you use this, you'll be able to tell your students: "You're never gonna have economics laid out as easy for you as it is here. If you can't learn it from this book, you simply can't learn it." There are also many, many supplementary materials available for this text, from quizzes to math worksheets to final exams. Really, instructors love it too, since they don't have to lift a finger. There is also a section in the back that recaps the major ideas of each chapter in Spanish. In a pinch, you could use this book in a Spanish economics class, provided it was only temporary.

The recent publication date of this book allows for greater understanding for today's youth. Being part of a summer school class, I was among the first people in my high school to evaluate the book for the regular school year. Key concepts in this book are efficiently shown, and all the basic principles of economics (supply & demand, business types) are outlined very nicely. Although our school did not partake in it, the book also comes with a set of interactive CD's, allowing the instructor to visually show the effects of economics on daily life. There are an amazing number of brightly-colored graphs and pictures to demonstrate the book's main points. This text was extremely successful in helping me gain an appreciation for the backbone of our nation's economic standing.