AGRICULTURE INSTRUCTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS IMPACT ON PROGRAM GRADUATES ENTERING POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION OR EMPLOYMENT IN LOCAL COMMUNITIES

The Death and Life of the Great American School System (Ravitch, 2010) excoriates the current public education reform movement, arguing there's virtually no empirical evidence that any aspect of the agenda school choice, high stakes testing, etc. have improved either the process or the product of public education. Formal school system agricultural education (career and technical education in agriculture) since 1917, via the Smith Hughes Act, has been a part of the Federal system of public education with the specific responsibility for the operation of the public school system delegated to each state. As part of public school enterprise agriscience/agricultural education has been part of the educational reform initiatives with little examination of how such initiatives have impacted the educational process for the individual students. Agriscience/agricultural education programs have been subjected to an additional set of reform initiatives related to rapid technological changes in the agricultural industry.