Recent trends in agricultural education have demonstrated that the number of middle school programs and students has been increasing. Despite this, middle school agricultural education students, teachers, and programs have been underserved. For example, middle school agricultural education teachers lack the training and resources to meet the needs…

Effective recruitment initiatives for underrepresented student populations interested in pursuing degrees in agricultural-related sciences have the potential to diversify colleges of agriculture while also increasing enrollment. In the current study, we used a qualitative case study approach to examine the effectiveness of the recruitment…

We conducted case studies on four Connecticut dairy farms to evaluate how well farmers implemented their nutrient management plans (NMPs). Our findings can help Extension educators develop programs to improve NMPs and NMP adoption by farmers. We identified three educational topic areas that would likely increase NMP understanding and acceptance:…

The purpose of this study was to identify the specific competencies needed to apply social marketing, a promising approach to behavior change, to Extension programming. A modified Delphi study was used to achieve group consensus among a panel of experts on the skills, characteristics, and knowledge needed to successfully apply this behavior change…

Suggestions are offered for planning and communicating what is done in summer agricultural programs through an outline format that is divided into four stages: plan, execute, report, and revise. (EA)

Research shows that farmers are the most important influence on the adoption of new methods by other farmers. Results reaffirm the importance of targeting beyond actual participants in designing and evaluating extension programs. (JOW)

To assist local administrators and teachers in determining educational objectives and priorities, this project tested a previously developed program evaluation model. The test site chosen for data collection was the agriculture department at James Wood High School. Conclusions of this test effort included: (1) The model for evaluation of secondary…