Involving Academic Partners in Establishing Standards in Agricultural Education

In its recommendations to agricultural education, the National Research Council (NRC) provided specific guidelines for improving the relevancy and effectiveness of a revised curriculum (NRC, 1988). Included in their recommendations were the following:

* Teacher education programs in agriculture

* Teacher education programs in agriculture should establish formal links with colleges of agriculture and education, cooperative extension, and private sector organizations to develop new inservice programs and opportunities for teachers and administrators.

* Colleges of agriculture should become more involved in curriculum reform, creation of new material and courses, and in-service education programs.

* Teacher educators in agriculture should establish better links with colleagues in other colleges, such as experts in science education (National Academy of Sciences, 1988; p. 47).

According to the NRC, making needed changes in agricultural education requires state-level leadership from teacher training institutions and departments of education. Linkages with university faculty from various disciplines in science and agriculture can provide opportunities for subject matter experts to validate the integration of science and agriculture at the secondary level. Faculty in teacher education cannot work in isolation of scientists and researchers when creating standards based curriculum that will meet the assessment driven accountability structure of today. This article provides a description of how one state approached the creation of new curriculum in agricultural education using a broad coalition of scientists, researchers, and industry representatives to create standards that could serve students interested in agricultural education regardless if their immediate career path is the workforce or higher education.

In their white paper, Improving Student Achievement in Science: An Important Role for secondary Agricultural Education in the 21st Century, Edwards, Leising, and Parr (2002) suggested that we should assess student learning in agriscience using authentic benchmarks, standards, and rubrics. In June 2003 the Program Director for Academics in the Indiana Department of Education, and the Associate Dean for Academic Programs in Purdue's School of Agriculture began to discuss creation of secondary agricultural education courses that would be different than any others. In concept, these courses would prepare students for opportunities in career and technical education fields, and would also "count" as advanced science courses (not vocational electives) towards high school graduation, including honors. These courses would also be accepted as advanced science at every higher education institution in Indiana.

The Indiana Department of Education had previously devised an approach for development of standards for Mathematics, Science, English, and Social Studies statewide curricula. This same approach to the development of standards for new courses in agricultural education enabled the creation of clear, challenging academic standards in agricultural science.

Expert Review - Internal

Once the Department of Education (DOE) and Purdue University's Office of Academic Programs agreed to the approach, a list of reviewers that would serve on the committee to establish the standards for the advanced science courses in agricultural education was compiled. The committee was made up of five university professors in biology from five institutions of higher education, five university professors of chemistry from five institutions of higher education, one university professor each in plant genetics and animal science, two representatives from Indiana's life sciences industry, one representative of science education at the state level, and five high school agricultural science and business teachers. This group, labeled "internal reviewers" (since they were internal to Indiana) met initially in August of 2003.

The internal reviewers developed standards for three courses: Advanced Life Science: Plants, Advanced Life Science: Animals, and Advanced Life Science: Foods. In all, 115 standards were developed for the Advanced Life Science: Animals course; 60 standards for the Advanced Life Science: Plants course; and 48 standards for the Advanced Life Science: Foods course.

Expert Review - External

The next phase of the development process required the involvement of external reviewers from credible sources outside of Indiana. This was needed to ensure that the standards were as rigorous as any in the country and to validate the procedure undertaken by the internal review process. The Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) evaluated the substance of the standards for each of the three proposed courses. Their feedback of the initial documents provided recommendations for change for each course. CAST representatives presented their findings to the internal reviewers at a meeting in September of 2003. During that meeting, reviewers incorporated additional changes into the standards for each course. Once consensus was achieved by the internal and external reviewers the three sets of standards were delivered to the Indiana Department of Education for the next phase of the project.

Stakeholder and Public Input

Tyler (1949) stated that three areas are important in any curriculum development: consideration of learners, the subject specialists, and society; public input is important in the development of curriculum. In March 2004 the academic standards for agricultural education were uploaded onto the front page of the Indiana Department of Education's website with instructions for providing electronic feedback. Positioning of these standards front and center allowed practitioners, citizens, and program stakeholders to critique them for 60 days. Armed with this feedback, project directors fine tuned the standards for each of the three courses. This process is essential since an often cited criticism of educational reform is that if parents, teachers, community leaders, and administrators have little or no involvement in the development of new curriculum, they will be uninformed of changes and unable, or worse, unwilling to defend the reform when challenges occur (Massell, 1994). Inviting public input through a web-based platform allowed for "buy in" of individuals interested in the project from a statewide audience.

Final Approval

In March of 2004 the standards for the three courses, Advanced Life Sciences: Animals, Advanced Life Sciences: Plants, and Advanced Life Sciences: Foods were forwarded to the Indiana State Board of Education for preliminary review and approval as advanced science courses. They were met with overwhelming support and are on track for final approval later in 2004. The standards were submitted to the Indiana State Commission for Higher Education with a similar positive response. Upon final approval, the courses will be the first career and technical education courses in Indiana approved for advanced science credit towards high school graduation (including the academic honors diploma) and will be accepted as entrance science credit for all students entering an institution of higher education anywhere in the state of Indiana.

The final piece of this project is the course rollout set to occur with one new course each academic year beginning 2004-05. In addition, a professional development component has been developed that will prepare teachers in the pedagogy and subject matter training necessary for teaching advanced science concepts.

This represents a fundamental shift in the way many in the state view agricultural education and its role within the context of the total curricular offerings. Indiana's agricultural science and business teachers will still have the current course offerings to teach, but for the first time teachers will have the opportunity to offer an advanced science course built upon rigorous, measurable, world-class standards of performance.

The model presented herein gives promise for others to begin the implementation process for new course standards that are rigorous, measurable, and based on world-class standards of performance. And while the emphasis has been placed upon the product, the process cannot be overlooked. Benefits of collaborating with scientists, researchers, business and industry representatives, and others are immeasurable. This process allows for opportunities to expand the circle of stakeholders involved in agricultural education and can strengthen and broaden the impact agricultural education has upon all students regardless of their future aspirations.