The Value of English: Perspectives on the Economic Benefits of Studying English in High School

This exploratory study investigates English education professors’ beliefs about the economic value of studying English language arts (ELA). In response to a 44-item, cross-sectional survey, 140 professors clarified their beliefs about which economic benefits are and should be offered in high school ELA classes; how ELA classes are and should be designed to deliver those benefits; how much curricular attention is and should be given to economic benefits compared to other components of ELA; and whether ELA’s economic benefits should receive more attention in the future. The article identifies patterns in professors’ thinking about the economic payoff of ELA. These patterns are read against five common models of ELA’s economic value. The article concludes with a discussion of what respondents’ answers suggest about competing conceptions of the organization and purposes of ELA and K–12 schools.