Performing Department
Teacher Education
Non Technical Summary
With an increasingly aging population, North Dakota faces the retirement of many Career and Technical Education (CTE) teachers, and attrition rates of new teachers here and nationwide are around 40%. In order to develop pathways and replicate STEM's best practices to engage youth in Food, Agricultural, Natural Resources, and Human (FANH) Sciences, we need new teachers of Agriculture and Family and Consumer Science to acclimate quickly, prepare to fill leadership vacancies in state educational organizations, and maintain strong student organizations to prepare future food systems specialists. New teachers lack support, and many new teachers are entering the FACS and Ag classrooms with alternative licensing--i.e., without the traditional Food, Agricultural, Natural Resources, and Human (FANH) Sciences preparation. NDSU teacher education specialists propose developing an Induction Program for North Dakota FANH Sciences Teachers, providing a structured, long-term professional development in-service with mentoring, specifically focusing on the needs of new instructors, including the ancillary activities of lab maintenance, student organization advising, and competition preparation. Implementation will occur over two years, encourage cross-disciplinary collaboration between participants, develop leadership skills, and improve retention rates of FANH Sciences teachers. Induction Program participants will engage in four face-to-face sessions each year designed responsively to their feedback on regular needs assessments. Program goals include improving the long-term retention of highly-qualified FANH sciences teachers, building strong educational programs, and preparing a skilled student body ready to face the 21st century grand challenges in Sustainable Food Systems and Security.Long-term teacher retention within FANH subject areas across North Dakota will serve as the primary impact of the program. The presence of highly qualified teachers in FANH subjects leads to educated and prepared students across generations. Within the present proposed program, teachers will design educational practices which when transferred to secondary students will allow students to analyze case studies on the safe production and handling of food products.Through consistent secondary educational efforts, students will emerge as informed citizens and consumers within FANH areas impacting their food decision-making abilities. Across North Dakota, most FANH programs exist within small rural communities. Contemporary FANH education via these programs helps to ensure diverse perspectives on sustainable food production are experienced across the junior high and high school years. Student learning through the classroom and career-related activitiesoutside of school withinagriculture and food production in the local rural communities will help to engage those young people in making local career decisions to improve the longevity of our rural economies.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
0%
Applied
40%
Developmental
60%
Goals / Objectives
The purpose of this program is toestablisha structured, long-term professional development in-service to North Dakota's secondary food, agricultural, natural resources, and human (FANH) sciencesteachers in their induction years (1-3), with the overarching goal ofimproving the long term retention and success of our FANH teachers, thusstrengthening the agricultural, food safety, health, and nutrition education in our schools.Presently, withinNorth Dakotanearly 15% of FANH teachers are in their induction years.Roughly 20% of FANH teaching positions across North Dakota open annually due to myriad attrition explanations. With many FAHN teachers retiring each year, it is important that induction teachers quickly gain and utilize leadership skills and fill leadership positions in state organizations left open by retiring teachers. We want to minimize the number of new teachers leaving the profession annually. Objectives and actions:1. Provide professionally relevant programming for all FANH teachers in their induction years.Address theuniquedemands onCTE teachers regardingplanning, preparation, and conceptualization as teachers and target those needs.Design the development programto reflectthe classrooms and activities of the induction teachers to include real problems teachers face within their first years.Maintain ahands-on,content-focused approachto development activitiesin order toprovide coherence with daily classroom needs and encourage immediate action within the professional development environment.2. Create a venue for teacher retention within FANH areas.Develop collaborative relationships between all induction teachers of FANH areas in North Dakota, building community among professionals.Establish mentoring relationships for induction teachers within the schools and content areas.Support continual professional improvement and leadership development across induction years and beyond.3. Guide teachers throughstrategies toadvancefood education within existing secondary classroomsandenhance their students' outcomes.Teachers will develop plans and strategies to accomplish tasks crucial to successful secondary FANH programs.Teachers will solve problems encountered by secondary FANH teachers.Teachers will enhance technical knowledge and skills within FANH content areas.Teachers will incorporate leadership education into the classroom and throughrelated Career and Technical Student Organizations (CTSOs).Teachers will develop effective strategies for incorporating CTSOs and activities within the curriculum.Teacherswill develop content area and STEM-aligned curriculum which addresses the safe and practicable production and handling of food products along the chain from the producer to the consumer.
Project Methods
The Induction Program for ND FANH Teachers initially will be implemented in two phases over two years. The inaugural year will involve first and second year Agricultural Education and Family and Consumer Sciences teachers, only. Year two will retain all previous participants and further include new first year teachers in FACS and Ag Ed. Traditionally prepared induction teachers and alternatively certified induction teachers, regardless of previous teaching experience, will be targeted and encouraged to participate. Four face-to-face sessions will be collaboratively prepared for induction teachers to engage. The sessions will be scheduled at the beginning and toward the end of each academic semester to allow for ramp up and reflection by the induction teachers. Induction Program for ND FANH Teachers objectives are embedded in the program design and will be continuously evaluated through reflection by participants.The Induction Program for ND FANH Teachers is designed to appropriately follow induction teacher developmental needs within the classroom and intra-curricular program components. First year induction teachers will involve themselves in applied extensions of their teacher preparatory methods courses. Further, first year members will take advantage of non-formal mentoring from second and (eventually) third year members. First year teachers will also be assigned a content mentor consisting of retired content teachers or veteran teachers in the vicinity of the induction teacher. The general format and subjects for the initial iteration of the Induction Program for ND FANH Teachers will mimic one another for first and second year induction members. Future iterations will appropriately differentiate subject matter and experiences for each induction year teacher group.Once teachers enter their third year of the induction program, they will begin serving in a more integral mentoring role for both the first and second year teachers in the program. This role will be informal and guided by the program facilitators. Further, third year teachers will utilize a considerable portion of the induction program to collaborate with their content colleagues to develop workshops they will implement at the Professional Development Conference (PDC) preceding the next school year, pointing them toward taking on more leadership within the state. This project will conclude their formal directed induction program. The needs for workshop areas will be determined through surveys conducted at a PDC for the betterment and advancement of North Dakota's CTE teachers. This model of preparation and induction will allow the third year teachers to transition into future positions of leadership and stewardship within the profession.Evaluation of each aspect of the proposed program will be essential to our ability to evolve and tailor this immersive educational project. Formative evaluations will be implemented at end of each workshop (4 evaluations/participant group, 12 annually). These assessments will focus on the specific setting and topics reviewed during each of the four annual installments of the program. An annual summative evaluation will be administered each spring following the fourth workshop within that year. This assessment will give participants to reflect upon the entire year and their growth through the components of the program. Only the first and second year participants will complete this specific assessment. Program Completers (third year participants) will complete a joint Exit Assessment and overall program evaluation in August following their third year involved in the program. The capstone piece to this program will take place just prior to the beginning of their fourth year of teaching. These final evaluations will help shape the overall program as completers reflect upon their implementation of tools learned through the program over their first three years of teaching in FANH subjects.