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Syllabus Development Guide: AP® Macroeconomics

Syllabus Development Guide: AP® MacroeconomicsThe guide contains the following sections and information:

Curricular Requirement The curricular requirements are the core elements of the course. Your syllabus must provide clear evidence that each requirement is fully addressed in your course.

Scoring Components Some curricular requirements consist of complex, multipart statements. These particular requirements are broken down into their component parts and restated as “scoring components.” Reviewers will look for evidence that each scoring component is included in your course.

Evaluation Guideline(s) These are the guidelines used by reviewers to evaluate the evidence in your syllabus. Use these guidelines to determine the level of detail reviewers require to demonstrate how the curricular requirements are met in your course.

Key Term(s) To ensure the clarity of certain terms or expressions that may have multiple meanings, each of these terms is clearly defined.

Samples of Evidence For each scoring component, three separate samples of evidence are provided. These statements provide clear descriptions of what acceptable evidence should look like.

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Table of Contents Page

Scoring Component 1 3










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Curricular Requirement The course provides instruction in each of the following seven topics outlined in the Course Description: • Basic economic concepts • Measurement of economic performance • National income and price determination • Financial sector • Inflation, unemployment, and stabilization policies • Economic growth and productivity • Open economy: international trade and finance

Scoring Component 1 The course provides instruction in basic economic concepts, such as marginal analysis and opportunity costs.

Evaluation Guideline(s) The syllabus must explicitly mention demand, supply, and scarcity.

If the syllabus sufficiently cites (author, title, and edition) textbooks or materials included in the College Board’s example textbook lists and the practice or topic in the scoring component is identified as being taught, then the scoring component has been satisfied.

Key Term(s) None at this time.

Samples of Evidence1. In the introduction of the course, the syllabus requires that students are introduced to the production possibilities frontier. This is followed by an in-class

discussion.

2. In the introduction of the course, the syllabus includes an in-class discussion on productive and allocative efficiency.

3. In the introduction of the course, the syllabus states that students participate in an in-class discussion on the law of demand, law of supply, and equilibrium price and quantity determination.

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Scoring Component 2 The course provides instruction in measurement of economic performance, national income and price-level determination.

Evaluation Guideline(s) The syllabus must explicitly mention measurement of economic performance, national income and price-level determination.



Samples of Evidence1. In the unit discussing measurement of economic performance, the syllabus requires that students review AP® free-response questions.

2. The syllabus includes additional analysis such as measurement of unemployment and its impact on economic performance (Okun’s Law).

3. The syllabus includes a variety of analysis regarding measurement of economic performance including analysis of GDP equation (y=c+i+g+(x-m)), expenditures approach-income approach, adjusting for price-level change, and calculating nominal/real GDP, and unemployment rate.

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Scoring Component 3 The course provides instruction in unemployment and inflation.

Evaluation Guideline(s) Stating ”The course provides instruction in unemployment and inflation” verbatim anywhere in the syllabus is sufficient evidence.



Samples of Evidence1. The syllabus includes a segment devoted to Phillips Curve analysis.

2. The syllabus includes instruction in, and the effects of, Okun’s Law — the economic cost of unemployment.

3. The syllabus includes a variety of assignments that require calculating unemployment and inflation, examining types of unemployment/inflation and discussing the effects of inflation such as redistributive effects.

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Scoring Component 4 The course provides instruction in open economy and international trade and finance.

Evaluation Guideline(s) The syllabus must explicitly mention instruction in the financial sector.


Key Term(s) Financial sector: the inclusion money, banking, financial markets, and central bank policy.

Samples of Evidence1. In the Finance unit, the syllabus includes instruction in money market equilibrium.

2. Instruction in bond market equilibrium is included on the syllabus.

3. The syllabus includes a variety of analysis and discussion regarding the financial sector including value-future value analysis, bond market discussion, and money market discussion.

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Scoring Component 5 The course provides instruction in stabilization policies.

Evaluation Guideline(s) The syllabus must explicitly mention instruction in stabilization policies.



Samples of Evidence1. The policy unit of the syllabus includes discussion of corrective fiscal/monetary policy.

2. In the unit where economic policy is discussed, the syllabus states that students complete free-response questions.

3. The syllabus includes a variety of assignments where students examine built-in stabilizers, inflation/unemployment in AD-AS models, policy options dealing with insufficient AD, and supply shocks and effects on equilibrium.

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Scoring Component 6 The course provides instruction in economic growth and productivity.

Evaluation Guideline(s) The syllabus must explicitly mention instruction in economic growth and productivity.



Samples of Evidence1. In the course outline, the syllabus includes a unit on economic growth and productivity.

2. In the unit where economic growth and productivity is discussed, the syllabus states that students are asked to write a short essay on economic growth.

3. In a course unit, the syllabus lists economic growth and productivity as a subtopic.

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Scoring Component 7 The course provides instruction in open economy and international trade and finance.

Evaluation Guideline(s) The syllabus must explicitly mention instruction in open economy and international trade and finance.



Samples of Evidence1. In the unit where open economy and international trade and finance are discussed, the syllabus states that students review free-response questions.

2. The syllabus includes a discussion of trade barriers in the international trade section.

3. The syllabus includes a variety of discussions regarding open economy including discussion of trade deficits, discussion of exchange rate determination, and discussion of fixed versus floating exchange rates.

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Curricular Requirement The course promotes the understanding of aggregate economic activity; the utilization of resources within and across countries; and the critical evaluation of determinants of economic progress and economic decisions made by policymakers.

Scoring Component 8 The course promotes understanding of aggregate economic activity and the critical evaluation of determinants of economic progress and economic decisions made by policymakers.

Evaluation Guideline(s) None at this time.


Samples of Evidence1. In the unit where economic policy is discussed, the syllabus states that students review free-response questions.

2. The syllabus includes assignments that promote solving policy questions.

3. The syllabus includes a variety of assignments regarding economic activity, including analysis of general economic equilibrium, application of simple models to determine equilibrium such as Keynesian, aggregate demand supply, and growth analysis.

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Curricular Requirement The course teaches how to generate, interpret, label, and analyze graphs, charts, and data to describe and explain economic concepts.

Scoring Component 9 The course teaches students how to generate charts and graphs to describe economic concepts.


Key Term(s) Generate: students create and correctly label graphs.

Samples of Evidence1. In the unit where charts and graphs are discussed, the syllabus states that students review free-response questions.

2. In the unit where charts and graphs are discussed, the syllabus includes assignments that require graphing, constructing charts using economic data.

3. In the unit where charts and graphs are discussed, the syllabus requires that students must draw a graph-diagram illustrating an equilibrium situation in a given market.

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Curricular Requirement The course teaches how to generate, interpret, label, and analyze graphs, charts, and data to describe and explain economic concepts.

Scoring Component 10 The course teaches students how to interpret and analyze charts, graphs and data to describe economic concepts.


Key Term(s) Analyze: students are able to apply model(s).

Samples of Evidence1. The syllabus states (implies) that students are analyzing AP free-response questions.

2. The syllabus states (implies) that students are drawing and labeling graphs that depict an equilibrium situation for a market or an aggregate economy.

3. The syllabus states (implies) that students construct a price-quantity graph, or other appropriate tables, that require a graph to fully analyze an issue; draw demand-supply graph from table.

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