Modern societal functions for meeting basic needs contribute to the lack of understanding many Americans have about agriculture's connection to human health and environmental quality. Consequently, this limited understanding has produced a need to measure agricultural literacy to develop programming or enhance existing agricultural educational…

Quality management and quality control of food products are critical to producing food that is safe to consume and has consistent quality and sensory attributes. The extent to which undergraduate students are equipped with competencies in quality management/control, in theory, has a direct connection with their career potential to ensure food…

With a continuous shortage of qualified agricultural science teachers (Foster, Lawver, Smith, 2014; Kantrovich, 2010), it is imperative teacher preparation programs identify and utilize effective cooperating teachers, as well as develop training for in-service teachers that will assist in preparing more effective cooperating teachers. The purpose…

The effectiveness of teacher professional development (PD) has been scrutinized for decades. Although scholars generally agree that collaboration is a critical component of sustainable PD, among schools in the United States, time for collaboration embedded within the school day is lacking. In the most recent era of social media, school districts…

To understand the potential public health and social justice implications of criminal background screening on college admissions, we examined postsecondary institutions' reasons for collecting or not collecting applicants' criminal justice information. We invited heads of admissions from 300 randomly sampled postsecondary institutions to complete…

Building an effective Extension advisory leadership system is essential for Cooperative Extension to ensure the existence and relevance of university outreach programs to meet community needs. The purpose of this study has been to explore characteristics and motivational factors of effective Extension advisory leaders for identifying, motivating,…

Community college deans and other senior administrators are faced with a variety of issues and challenges that include, but are not limited to, the ever-changing nature of technology, changes in diverse populations, industry training, and job placements. At this level, the frequently identified emergence of leadership and supervision issues have…

A Delphi panel of 19 technology teachers/administrators reached consensus on 25 quality indicators for technology education. Similarities with a Maryland study and with the Technology for All Americans project were found. Results may be used to establish program benchmarks. (SK)

A study was conducted to identify specific quality characteristics for North Carolina local technology education programs that can be used by educational leaders to assess quality within their programs. The indicators developed in this research study were validated through consensus drawing measures from a panel of experts in the fields of…

Distressed by media headlines trumpeting supposed "reading-and-writing wars," a reading education professor discusses his Delphi survey of 11 reading experts. Experts agreed that emphasizing only phonics instruction and drill-and-practice would make learning to read difficult. Reading would be facilitated by bringing together…

A standard-setting experiment was conducted in which one group of participants was instructed to refrain from discussing their recommended test standards and another group was requested to report the reasons underlying their recommendations. The procedures used were designed to induce convergence of recommendations, but did not require consensus.…

A study was conducted to build a task list for the clinical experience program for agricultural teacher education programs in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. A modified Delphi technique was used to survey a panel of experts to identify the tasks that should be included in the early field experiences (EFEs) and student teaching…

The following papers are included: "Concepts on Marketing Issues in the Czech Republic" (Anne Mills); "Requiring More of Teacher Preparation: Authentic Assessment as a Vehicle to Reform" (Laura J. Wyant); "A Delphi Study of Professional Competencies for the Secondary Marketing Educator" (Trellys A. Morris); "The…

This document contains 14 research paper presentations and 5 "mini-tips" from the 1998 American Vocational Education Research Association (AVERA) annual meeting. The first section includes three papers on international and distance education: "Determining Success of Vocational Students Enrolled in Distance Education Courses"…