Performing Department
DEPT OF COMMUNITY, AGRICULTURE, RECREATION & RESOURCE STUDIES
Non Technical Summary
A.Nationally, agricultural education is beginning to develop and adopt state standards based on the States ANR Career Cluster. This becomes a problem for individual states with how they will adopt (if they adopt) national standards, specifically Michigan. B.The Michigan State Board of Education is in favor of developing standards and curriculum in CTE programs based on the States Career Clusters. How are they going to make this transition and still meet the needs of Michigans CTE programs? A.Curriculum needed for an effective system of agricultural science education has changed drastically in recent decades, but no research is available to establish the content or student outcomes that meet the unique needs of Michigan agriculture industry or workers or to meet Michigan Learning Standards. This study will provide a basis for needed programmatic and curriculum reform of agricultural science education in Michigan. B.The project will result in the development of a core
curriculum framework for agricultural science education for Michigan, including content and student outcomes consistent with and supportive of Michigan Learning Standards and based on that Career Clusters ANR framework.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
20%
Applied
40%
Developmental
40%
Goals / Objectives
For most of the last century the primary focus of secondary agricultural education was entry-level job preparation for agriculture workers, primarily farmers. In the mid 1980s a shift away from a singular focus on vocational preparation and toward a more balanced science-based approach to agricultural education began to take hold nationally. In Michigan, this shift has led to a state agricultural education curriculum cross-walked with state academic standards in science and math. This curriculum has been designed and developed primarily by the teachers. This results in a curriculum that has been a generally uncoordinated series of local initiatives with a wide range of quality and content for various criterion. Currently, under the leadership of The National Council for Agricultural Education (The Council), a new reform movement is changing the face of agriculture education. Included in the 2004-2007 Strategic Plan drafted by The Council is a major goal to develop
national curriculum standards for secondary agricultural education that align with the career clusters pathways. Major efforts to develop career clusters to form the basis for career and technical education have been underway in this country at least since the 1970s. Recent efforts have given rise to a series of 16 career clusters recognized by the United States Department of Education (Wonacott, 2000). The Career Pathways Model for the Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources cluster, was developed through a grant from the USDA. With the adoption of standards leading the direction of agricultural education at the national level many states are looking at the Agricultural, Food, and Natural Resources Clusters as a foundation for developing their state standards and curriculum in agricultural education. Currently, the Michigan State Board of Education (MSBE) is adapting its current secondary career and technical programs (CTE) programs to become aligned with the Career Clusters (Career
Clusters, 2006). Within this next year they are undertaking the task of revising three programs, one of them being agricultural science education. There is a Michigan agriscience education curriculum that the teachers statewide adhere to. Revision of this curriculum changes the face of agricultural science education and is a task that needs to be undertaken with involvement from all stakeholders, specifically the agricultural science educators. The main objective of this project is to develop and propose a core curriculum framework* for agricultural science education based on the Career Clusters and integrated with the current state curriculum. *A complete curriculum includes very detailed specifications along with extensive reference materials and student handouts, often even providing complete lesson plans for teacher use. Typically a complete curriculum is based on a curriculum framework, which is much less detailed and usually consists of a topic outline or a list of student
competencies. Development of a full curriculum is beyond the scope of this project. This project will develop a curriculum framework in the form of a list of student competencies stated in task format.
Project Methods
This study will take approximately twelve months to accomplish. The steps taken will be: 1.Review and synthesize literature related to the study. 2.Identify existing exemplary state agricultural science education programs. 3.Conduct content analysis of exemplary program documents. 4.Conduct focus groups of teachers and stakeholders to develop operational definition of Agricultural Science Education for Michigan. 5.Establish curriculum framework using the Career Clusters Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources model as a foundation. 6.Conduct Delphi studies of NYS teachers and stakeholders to establish student-learning outcomes consistent with the Career Clusters framework and Michigan Learning Standards. (Funding may be needed for this portion of the project, so it may not occur on this project).