Performing Department
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Non Technical Summary
The agriculture, food, and natural (AFNR) workforce in Eastern Oregon lacks workers at the same time rural students are leaving their communities for urban jobs. Oregon Revitalizing Unpopulated Regions with AFNR Literacy Towards a Prepared Workforce unites Eastern Oregon's K-12 Career & Technical Education Division, Treasure Valley Community College (TVCC), Oregon State University Extension Service, and AFNR workforce partners with a common goal to generate sustained K-14 interest in AFNR careers through experiential opportunities, workforce partnerships, and innovative educational resources. Our objectives are to work with AFNR workforce partners at the K-14 levels to: 1) provide at least 16 AFNR teachers/instructors paid externships, 2) implement 18 experiential learning field trips, 3) facilitate at least 10 AFNR internships for students, 4) host an open-access resources for high school agricultural teachers to generate agricultural activities aligned with Oregon's educational standards, and 5) facilitate scholarships for 10 underrepresented students to pursue an AFNR degree at TVCC. Our efforts will directly impact at least 1,020 students and 34 K-14 AFNR teachers/instructors. We will produce: 1) a sustainable workforce development model between K-14 partners, OSU, and AFNR workforce partners, 2) an open educational resource-- Pressbook--for agriculture teachers, and 3) coordinate internships for high school and community college students. We want our efforts to increase the number of rural high school students applying to AFNR degree programs, increase the number of students deciding to enter the AFNR workforce, and decrease barriers for K-12 teachers to include agricultural materials and activities in their teaching schedules.
Animal Health Component
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Research Effort Categories
Basic
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Applied
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Developmental
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Goals / Objectives
The goal of Oregon RURAL is to bring together key K-16 entities and committed AFNR workforce partners to generate sustained K-14 interest in AFNR careers through experiential opportunities, workforce partnerships, and innovative educational resources.
Project Methods
Experiential Learning OpportunitiesExternships: Agricultural teachers and instructors at the K-14 levels teach across broad disciplines and may need updated information related to their professional field. Through Oregon RURAL externships, 16 teachers/instructors the opportunity to work with AFNR workforce partners in the region. We strategically match the teachers/instructors with committed AFNR workforce partners for a paid externship, up to 5-days, whereby they learn workforce standards, knowledge, and skills that they will be expected to transfer directly to renew classroom instruction and activities--through an OER repository. Based on school district and teacher feedback, externships will take place in the summer and $15,000 will go directly toward teacher PD with additional $6,000 of funds subsidizing or fully cover food, lodging, and transportation during the externship.Field Trips: Oregon RURAL field trips are focused on getting students outside of the classroom and into real-world AFNR experiences. High school and community classes will be matched with committed AFNR workforce partners in their region for a field trip highlighting innovative and novel efforts. The Oregon RURAL budget contributes $18,000 for field trips--$1,000 per field trip--which covers costs for a substitute teacher, transportation, and food for students.Internships: Experiential learning opportunities provides teachers/instructors and students with insights into the AFNR workforce. Within the third and final experiential learning opportunity, Oregon RURAL works with AFNR workforce partners to facilitate at least 10 paid internships for high school and community college students. The internships provide students with work-based learning experience with an employer with funding coming from employers. USDA-National Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) District Manager in Malheur County provided his support for internships for high school and college students.Open Educational ResourcesOSU will host an open-access Pressbooks which is a digital platform that will act as a repository for high school agricultural teachers who will create and openly share agricultural activities aligned with Oregon's educational standards. The 10 high school agriculture teachers that served in the externship will be trained to create new activities based on their PD experiences. The activities will be aligned to Oregon Education Standards. These activities will integrate multimedia and interactive components using H5P which is an embedded tool within the Pressbook platform. This will allow teachers to build pre and post assessments and comprehension checks so that learners can self-assess their learning. The OER PD provided will train teachers to openly license the content they integrate in their activities so that the final product, a Pressbook of Ancillary Activities for Agriculture Science, is open and accessible for all K-14 agriculture teachers everywhere. The contract with the two consultants is approximately $22,000, which establishes a Pressbooks library with videos and resources empowering teachers to update classroom activities freely--lasting beyond the funding period.ScholarshipsOregon RURAL provides 10 scholarships for underrepresented students seeking an AFNR degree at TVCC--$1,000/student. To ensure these students are selected in an equitable manner, we partnered with the Ford Family Foundation (LoS) in Oregon, that will serve on the Advisory Committee. Scholarship criteria are attached in the Appendix. Scholarship deadlines will be published widely across the six eastern Oregon counties participating in theproject.The external evaluator will conduct both formative and summative evaluation activities to evaluate the achievement of program goals and objectives. The main goals of the evaluation are 1) provide frequent and comprehensive evaluation information that allows for the continuous improvement of project activities and student engagements, 2) monitor all project scheduling and activities to ensure adherence to proposed activities, budget, and focus/direction (i.e., project fidelity), 3) support all efforts to expand and improve the recruitment, retention, and learning of targeted students and teachers, 4) share collected information and evaluation findings to facilitate the identification of best practices related to increasing student interest in agriculture, food, and natural resource careers.EvaluationAn effective evaluation of this project requires a comprehensive mixed-methods approach to capturing all relevant information directly and indirectly related to 1) activities and operations of the project team, 2) the impact and quality of externships and PD opportunities for teachers, 3) the impact and quality of experiential learning experiences for students, 4) teacher understanding and usage of OER agricultural materials, 5) student interest and participation in agriculture, food, and natural resource career tracks, 6) and impacts on the workforce development of agriculture, food, and natural resource careers. Therefore, the evaluation will gather and analyze a wide range of qualitative and quantitative data, participate in planning and team meetings, and collaborate with other project personnel. By doing so, the evaluator will have the opportunity to provide frequent feedback on the project's ability to achieve stated goals and objectives as well as capture lessons learned and identify best practices for project reporting purposes.This mixed-methods approach will use surveys, interviews/focus groups, and mining of records and other data sources to collect quantitative and qualitative data to answer identified evaluation questions. All evaluation instruments (i.e. surveys, interview/focus group protocols) will be designed by the evaluation team. The surveys and interviews/focus groups will capture beliefs, perceptions, and experiences from students, teachers, and community partners. Surveys include, but are not limited to, externship surveys for teachers, pre-training and post-training PD surveys, post-field trip surveys for students, and student course evaluations. Student demographic information, project activity documentation (e.g., meeting minutes, budget/spending, training materials) will also be collected. All collected data will be analyzed by the evaluation team using appropriate statistical processes and procedures (i.e. descriptive statistics, correlations, ANOVA, non-parametric tests, qualitative analysis).Evaluation findings will be shared frequently with project personnel during regular intervals. Frequent sharing of findings will allow for project changes throughout the lifespan of the project to best support project outcomes. The primary reporting by the evaluation will be an annual report that will provide findings identified from analyzing the collected data. The report will be presented to PI/co-PIs, Advisory Committee, and other project personnel for review, followed by a discussion about themes, trends, and recommendations for program adjustments. Lastly, the evaluation team will work in collaboration with project team members to distribute project findings to stakeholders and the broader research community.