Progress 09/01/23 to 08/31/24
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience that was reached has greatly expanded over this past year. Based on the data reported through the Agricultural Experience Tracker, participation in the ACRS21 Certificate Pathway includes high school, community college, and university students. For the high school level certificate pathway, there are 12,040students participating representing 48states across the nation. The top ten states are represented in below: CA 6015 MI 856 TX 401 ID 340 GA 340 KY 315 OH 290 CO 286 NC 259 AL 229 Data from AET reports that there are 81students participating at the community college level. 75students represent community colleges in California. The Community Colleges participating in ACRS21 are listed below. CA 75 Allan Hancock College 1 Butte College 10 College of the Sequoias 11 CSU Fresno - ACRS21 14 Hartnell College 18 Lemoore College 1 Merced College 12 Modesto Junior College 2 Reedley College 5 Sierra College 1 Other particpating Community Colleges from outside of California include: Arkansas Mat-Su Career Tech FFA North Pole Idaho Meridian Minnisota Academy for Sciences and Agriculture Ohio Felcity-Franklin Oklahoma Okmulgee Changes/Problems:In developing the university level ACRS21 Certificate Pathway, a barrier was identified early on which was the lack of awareness about the program. To improve student awareness of the program, Emma Tripp an Honor's Student, created and implemented a marketing campaign to promote the pathway. Emma set up at career fairs, presented information at various club meetings, and set up a table in the quad area to promote the ACRS21 Pathway. She is in the middle of collecting data to measure the increase in awareness of our student body so we do not have data at this time to report. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The ACRS21 Certificate Pathway has provided professional development for more than 1,500 teachers. In addition, the project has employed several graduate and undergraduate students to serve on the ACRS21 Leadership Team. Two undergraduate and 7 graduate students have been involved in providing training workshops, creating online resources, creating soft skills curriculum, and assisting students with AET. Their support has been extremely valuable and has provided them with an opportunity to improve the personal development skills. Three of the students placed in the top ten with their poster abstracts at the Western Region American Association of Agricultural Educators conference held in Logan, Utah. To date, nine research projects involving soft skills have been conducted by honors and master students involved with the project. In addition to presenting their research findings at various conferences, the ACRS21 Leadership Team has provided professional development workshops for the California Agricultural Teachers Association at their regional meetings and state conference. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Information regarding the ACRS21 Certificate Pathway has been disseminated to our stake holders through our ACRS21 Advisory Board Meetings held annually. In addition, program information has been provided through regional and state reports for Secondary and Post-Secondary Agricultural Teachers. The research conducted by our students has been published in conference proceedings and their success has been included in social media posts for our campus. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?This is our final year of funding for this project. Our goals for the next reporting period are as follows: Complete the 10 teacher modules for the university level certificates, provide 8 more USDA internship opportunities for students this year, continue to provide teacher training workshops, provide additional research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, and encourage students at all levels of the certificate pathway to become completers.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Objective 1: The ACRS21 Certificate Pathway has directly impacted students in 48states across the nation. To date, 12,040students are participating in ACRS21; 11,736students at the high school level, 82students at the community college level, and 222students at the university level. The Agricultural Experience Tracker (AET) provides access for students to record their experiential activities and provides the framework for teachers to monitor student progress and award the certificate upon completion of the requirements. AET also houses resources that have been created to support teachers, students, and career counselors. The following resources are available, 10 Teaching Modules for High School Teachers, 10 Teaching Modules for Community College Teachers, Career Counselor resources, graphic organizers, tutorial videos, advisory committee resouces, teacher checklists, and soft skill assessments. Objective 2: All three levels of the ACRS21 Certificate Pathway have been developed and implemented. The Agricultural Experience Tracker is an online data management system used by high school agricultural students across the nation. Making the ACRS21 Certificate Pathway available in AET has allowed for the large number of participating students. The top ten states include California (6,015), Michigan (865), Texas (401),Idaho (340), Georgia (340), Kentucky (315), Ohio (290), Colorado(286), North Carolina (259), and Alabama (226).The Certificate Pathway for high school students was implemented in 2021 and was designed as a 4-year program for student completers. To date, there are 40 high school completers in California and one in Idaho. During year 3 and 4 of the program, the number of high school completers is expected to increase substantially. The ACRS21 Certificate Pathway for Community Colleges was implemented in 2022. There are 11 community colleges who have student participation. They include the follow community colleges in California: College of Sequoias (11), Butte College (10), Hartnell College (18), Merced College (12), West Hills College (1), Reedley College (5), Allan Hancock College (1), Modesto Community College (2), and Sierra College (1). There are sixcommunity colleges outside of California that have students participating. They include Meridian College in Idaho (1), the Academy of Sciences and Agriculture in Minnesota (1),Felicity-Franklin (1), the Okmulgee in Oklahoma, and Mat-Su Career Tech and North Pole in Alaska. The adoption of the ACRS21 Certificate Pathway at the community college level has been more difficult due to faculty and students' lack of familiarity with AET. Community College Teaching Modules have been created and made available on AET to assist teachers and students in the use of AET. Additional workshops have been provided along with virtual presentations to encourage participation. The ACRS21 Certificate Pathway for the University level was implemented in 2022 and is doing very well at the California State University, Fresno. ACRS21 has been embedded in the Agricultural Ambassador class and is now being used to track student involvement in work-based learning. A graduate student research project determined that the Agricultural Ambassadors improved their soft skill development in all 8 categories. Currently there are 222students participating in the University ACRS21 Certificate Pathway. AET has provided demographic data for gender and race. Of the 12,040students participating in the ACRS21 Certificate Pathway nationwide, 49.8% (6001) are female, 41.8% (5,031) are male, 7.7% (929) are non-responses, and .6% (78) are non-binary. The race data includes the following: 40.8% are White, Non-Hispanic (5,512), 27.5% are Hispanic (3,318), 14% are No Answer (1,693), 5.7% are Two or More (693), 2.4% are Asian (288), 2.7% are Black (328), 1.2% are Native American (148), .2% are Pacific Islander (36), and .08% are Native Alaskan (10), and .10% are Native Hawaiian (13). Objective 3: DASH was a program that was discontinued by the university. In it's place, the Career Center created a Job Shadowing and Mentoring Program for Fresno State students. This program allows students to complete an online application requesting mentoring in particular agricultural careers. In addition, the program allows industry employers to complete an online application volunteering their time to mentor students. The Career Center staff match the appropriate students with potential mentors. Objective 4: Over 100 students annually have participated in job shadowing, mentoring, and internship opportunities through the Career Center providing numerous hours of work-based learning for our students. Objective 5: The ACRS21 Certificate Pathway has sponsored 6 internships annually to students interested in participating in USDA internship positions. This is the fourthyear of the grant program and we have sponsored 24internships thus far. Our goal wasto provide 24 USDA internships over the life of this grant. The cooperating USDA agencies have been the Agricultural Research Service, the Department of Foresty, and the Natural Rescourse Conservation Service. Objective 6: The ACRS21 Leadership team has conducted 27 professional Teacher Training workshops over the past 3 years, impacting over 1,500 teachers. Presentations have been presented at the following conferences, the California Agricultural Teachers Association State Conference, the National Association of Supervisors for Agricultural Education Conference, the American Association of Agricultural Educators Conference, and the Western Region American Association of Agricultural Education Conference. Numerous presentations have been provided face to face, as well as virtually, to high school and community college instructors. Objective 7: The overall effectiveness of the ACRS21 Certificate Pathway was analyzed by Jocelyne Juarez, a graduate student at the California State University, Fresno. Her research was recently presented at the Western Region, American Association of Agricultural Educator Conference in Logan, Utah. Her research was awarded the Most Outstanding Poster Abstract in the conference. Through her data analysis of 36 ACRS21 Certificate completers, she determined that participating students improved their soft skill development in all 8 soft skill areas: time management, social competence, achievement motivation, intellectual flexibility, task leadership, emotional control, active initiative, and self-confidence. The primary purpose of this study was to determine if there was a significate change in soft skill development for students completing the ACRS21 Certificate Pathway. The results showed that each of the eight soft skills had experienced improved post-test mean scores and that significant difference occurred in five of the soft skills. These findings align with previous studies that have shown that experiential learning activities can strengthen soft skills in individuals. The results of this study are encouraging and show promise that future ACRS21 Certificate Pathway participants could experience growth in their soft skills development.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2024
Citation:
Suarez, A., Freeman, S., Hanagriff R., Rocca, S. An Evaluation of Soft Skills Development of Agricultural Ambassadors
Participating in the ACRS21 Program. Research Poster Abstract presented at the 2024 Agricultural Research Institute Conference in Sacramento, California
|
Progress 09/01/22 to 08/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience that was reachedhas greatly expanded over this past year. Based on the data reported through the Agricultural Experience Tracker, participation in the ACRS21 Certificate Pathway includes high school, community college, and university students. For the high school level certificate pathway, there are 6,643 students participating representing 46 states across the nation. The top ten states are represented in below: CA 4134 ID 333 TX 220 KY 163 GA 153 CO 149 AL 133 AZ 108 NE 103 NC 103 Data from AETreports that there are 41students participating at the community college level. 39 students represent community colleges in California. The participating colleges, states,and number of participating students are listed below. Community College State Number of Students College of the Sequoias CA 10 Hartnell College CA 8 Merced College CA 1 West Hills College CA 1 Reedley College CA 5 Butte Community College CA 10 Allan Hancock College CA 1 Modesto Community College CA 2 Meridian College ID 1 Academy of Science & Ag MN 1 Felicity-Franklin OH 1 For the university level certificate pathway, there are 139 students participating from the California State University, Fresno. Currently, there is a grand total of 6,823 students participating in the ACRS21 Certificate Pathway across the nation. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The ACRS21 Certificate Pathway has provided professional development for more than 1,500 teachers. In addition, the project has employed several graduate and undergraduate students to serve on the ACRS21 Leadership Team. Two undergraduate and 7 graduate students have been involved in providing training workshops, creating online resources, creating soft skills curriculum, and assisting students with AET. Their support has been extremely valuable and has provided them with an opportunity to improve the personal development skills. Three of the students placed in the top ten with their poster abstracts at the Western Region American Association of Agricultural Educators conference held in Logan, Utah. To date, nineresearch projects involving soft skills have been conducted by honors and master students involved with the project. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Information regarding the ACRS21 Certificate Pathway has been disseminated to our stake holders through our ACRS21 Advisory Board Meetings held annually. In addition, program information has been provided through regional and state reports for Secondary and Post-Secondary Agricultural Teachers. The research conducted by our students has been published in conference proceedings and their success has been included in social media posts for our campus. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?This is our final year of funding for this project. Our goals for the next reporting period are as follows: Complete the 10 teacher modules for the university level certificates, provide 8 more USDA internship opportunities for students this year, continue to provide teacher training workshops, provide additional research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, and encourage students at all levels of the certificate pathway to become completers.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Objective 1:The ACRS21 Certificate Pathway has directly impacted students in 46 states across the nation. To date, 6,823 students are participating in ACRS21; 6,643 students at the high school level, 41 students at the community college level, and 139 students at the university level. The Agricultural Experience Tracker (AET) provides access for students to record their experiential activities and provides the framework for teachers to monitor student progress and award the certificate upon completion of the requirements. AET also houses resources that have been created to support teachers, students, and career counselors. The following resources are available, 10 Teaching Modules for High School Teachers, 10 Teaching Modules for Community College Teachers, Career Counselor resources, graphic organizers, tutorial videos, advisory committee resouces, teacher checklists, and soft skill assessments. Objective 2:All three levels of the ACRS21 Certificate Pathway have been developed and implemented. The Agricultural Experience Tracker is an online data management system used by high school agricultural students across the nation. Making the ACRS21 Certificate Pathway available in AET has allowed for the large number of participating students. The top ten states include California (4,134), Idaho (333), Texas (220), Kentucky (163), Georgia (153), Colorado (149), Alabama (133), Arizona (108), Nebraska (103), and North Carolina (103). The Certificate Pathway for high school students was implemented in 2021 and was designed as a 4-year program for student completers. To date, there are 40 high school completers in California and one in Idaho. During year 3 and 4 of the program, the number of high school completers is expected to increase substantially. The ACRS21 Certificate Pathway for Community Colleges was implemented in 2022. There are 11 community colleges who have student participation. They include the follow community colleges in California: College of Sequoias (10), Hartnell College (8), Merced College (1), West Hills College (1), Reedley College (5), Butte Community College (10), Allan Hancock College (1), and Modesto Community College (2). There are three community colleges out of California that have students participating. They include Meridian College in Idaho (1), the Academy of Sciences and Agriculture in Minnesota (1), and Felicity-Franklin (1). The adoption of the ACRS21 Certificate Pathway at the community college level has been more difficult due to faculty and students' lack of familiarity with AET. Community College Teaching Modules have been created and made available on AET to assist teachers and students in the use of AET. Additional workshops have been provided along with virtual presentations to encourage participation. The ACRS21 Certificate Pathway for the University level was implemented in 2022 and is doing very well at the California State University, Fresno. ACRS21 has been embedded in the AgriculturalAmbassador class and is now being used to track student involvement in work-based learning. A graduate student research project determined that the Agricultural Ambassadors improved their soft skill development in all 8 categories. Currently there are 139 students participating in ACRS21. AET has provided demographic data for gender and race. Of the 6,823 students participating in the ACRS21 Certificate Pathway nationwide, 50.5% (3,449) are female,41.9% (2,862) are male, 6.7% (462) are non-responses, and .7% (52) are non-binary. The race data includes the following: 40% are White, Non-Hispanic (2726), 32.8% are Hispanic (2,239), 13.9% are No Answer (951), 6.3% are Two or More (432), 3.1% are Asian (209), 2.1% are Black (146), 1.1% are Native American (77), .4% are Pacific Islander (26), and .2% are Native American. Objective 3:DASH was a program that was discontinued by the university. In it's place, the Career Center created a Job Shadowing and Mentoring Program for Fresno State students. This program allows students to complete an online application requesting mentoring in particular agricultural careers. In addition, the program allows industry employers to complete an online application volunteering their time to mentor students. The Career Center staff match the appropriate students with potential mentors. Objective 4:Over 100 students annually have participated in job shadowing, mentoring, and internship opportunities through the Career Center providing numerous hours of work-based learning for our students. Objective 5:The ACRS21 Certificate Pathway has sponsored 6 internships annually to students interested in participating in USDA internship positions. This is the thirdyear of the grant program and we have sponsored 16 internships thus far. Our goal is to provide 24 USDA internships over the life of this grant. The cooperating USDA agencies have been the Agricultural Research Service, the Department of Foresty, and the Natural Rescourse Conservation Service. Objective 6:The ACRS21 Leadership team has conducted 27 professional Teacher Training workshops over the past 3 years, impacting over 1,500 teachers. Presentations have been presented at the following conferences, the California Agricultural Teachers Association State Conference, the National Association of Supervisors for Agricultural Education Conference, the American Association of Agricultural Educators Conference, and the Western Region American Association of Agricultural Education Conference. Numerous presentations have been provided face to face, as well as virtually, to high school and community college instructors. Objective 7:The overall effectiveness of the ACRS21 Certificate Pathway was analyzed by Jocelyne Juarez, a graduate student at the California State University, Fresno. Her research was recently presented at the Western Region, American Association of Agricultural Educator Conference in Logan, Utah. Her research was awarded the Most Outstanding Poster Abstract in the conference. Through her data analysis of 36ACRS21 Certificate completers, she determined that participating students improved their soft skill development in all 8 soft skill areas:time management, social competence, achievement motivation, intellectual flexibility, task leadership, emotional control, active initiative, and self-confidence.The primary purpose of this study was to determine if there was a significate change in soft skill development for students completing the ACRS21 Certificate Pathway. The results showed that each of the eight soft skills had experienced improved post-test mean scores and that significant difference occurred in five of the soft skills. These findings align with previous studies that have shown that experiential learning activities can strengthen soft skills in individuals. The results of this study are encouraging and show promise that future ACRS21 Certificate Pathway participants could experience growth in their soft skills development.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Juarez, J., Freeman, S., Hanagriff, R., Rocca, S. Analyzing Pre and Post Test Scores of ACRS21 Certificate Pathway Completers. Research Poster Abstract presented at the 2023 Western Region American Association of Agricultural Educators Conference. Logan, Utah.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Suarez, A., Freeman, S., Hanagriff R., Rocca, S. An Evaluation of Soft Skills Development of Agricultural Ambassadors Participating in the ACRS21 Program. Research Poster Abstract presented at the 2023 Western Region American Association of Agricultural Educators Conference. Logan, Utah.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Salas II, J., Stone, K., Freeman, S., Hanagriff, R., Rocca, S. Development of Soft Skills Curriculum for High School Students Participating in the Agricultural Career Readiness Skills for the 21st Century Certificate Pathway. Innovative Poster Abstract
|
Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:Initially, our target audience was mainly high school agriculture teachers. The goal during the first year was to create the program and then during the second year our goal was to begin the implementation of the ACRS21 Certificate Pathway in high school programs throughout the state of California. Over this past year, our focus has grown to includeinstructorsat the community college level and State Supervisorsfor secondary across the United States. Additional research has been conducted to ensure that the needs of the community college students are being addressed through the ACRS21 Certificate Pathway. Presentations at the National Agricultural Supervisors for Agriculture Education have provided program information to a much wider national audience. Lastly, the target audience has included university students at the California State University, Fresno. Agriculture Ambassadors have served as a pilot group to introduce the certificate pathway at the university level. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The professional development opportunities that the ACRS21 Project has been tramendousfor undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty members. Numerous honors projects, master's projects, poster abstracts, and conference abstracts have been supported through research activities associated with soft skill development. Below is a list of presentations conducted. WR-AAAE Research Conference Poster -A Delphi Investigation to Determine Experiential Learning Activities Utilized for Soft Skill Development at Agriculture Community Colleges Across California WR-AAAE Research Conference Research Abstract -Research Paper presentation - Ag Skills Survey: Skills Sought by Employers in the Agricultural Industry (Awarded Most Impactful Research) California Agricultural Teachers Association Secondary Division and Community College Division Workshops California Community College Mid-Winter Institute Presentation World Ag Expo Educational Seminar Presentation National Association of Supervisors for Agricultural Education Workshop California State Agriculture Education Staff Meeting Presentation Fresno State Ag One Foundation Presentation California Women in Agriculture Presentation How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Workshop and conference presentations have been the best way for us to disseminate information regarding the implementation of the ACRS21 Certificate Pathway. In addition, the ACRS21 Advisory Committee is comprised of members from the State Department of Education, local Farm Bureaus, California AgriculturalTeachers Association, Agriculture Industry Representatives, and cooperating agencies, such as the Center for Land Based Learning, USDA, and Texas A&M. Information is sent out via the ACRS21 email account to announce upcoming events and provide technical support for the teachers and students using the AET. Website pages are maintain in AET and on the Fresno States sites. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Our goals include the following: High School Certificate - continue the implementation of the certificate program throughout the United States by supporting AET's efforts to promote the pathway through State Supervisors and through online communications. Provide additional workshop training for teachers at CATA Regional meetings and state conferences. Community College Certificate - focus on providing technical support to teachers who have not used AET and to promote the implementation of community college programs through workshop trainings and resources available in AET. University Certificate - work to implement ACRS21 within courses at Fresno State, provide teacher support through classroom presentation, create university level teacher training modules, and build relationships with faculty members at the other major agriculturecolleges to promote their adoption of the ACRS21 Certificate Pathway. Continue working with the career center in building the Mentoring and Job Shadowing Programs and promote internships with USDA and the agricultural industry.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Table 1 Student Participation in ACRS21 Certificate Pathway- Year 2 State Number of Chapters Applications Open Female Male Hispanic Non-Hispanic No Answer California 173 1,845 56.80 % 40.87 % 48.02 % 38.48 % 13.50 % Colorado 41 71 53.52 % 40.85 % 21.13 % 69.01 % 9.86 % Idaho 15 304 43.42 % 52.96 % 47.70 % 46.38 % 5.92 % Table 2 Student Participation for Each Certificate Level - Year 2 Certificate Level Number of Students Percentage of Students High School 2180 98.2% Community College 30 1.35% University 10 .45 % Objective 1: The ACRS21 Certificate Pathway has been created at the high school, community college, and university levels. Implementation of the certificate pathway has been completed through the development of certificates embedded in the Agricultural Experience Tracker (AET). Adoption thus far is mainly at the secondary level with 2,220 students participating in the ACRS21 Certificate Pathway including students from California, Colorado, and Idaho. There are 174 participating chapters in the state of California, representing nearly half of the total FFA chapters in the state. The majority of the students are at the high school level (98.2%), 30 students represent the community college level (1.35%), and 10 students are participating at the university level (.45%). Currently, 7 states have activated the ACRS21 Certificate Pathway for their students to access through AET. They include Minnesota, California, Colorado, Idaho, Michigan, Ohio and Oklahoma. Over 95,000 students have access in the state of California alone. A total of 19 Teaching Training Modules have been created at the high school and community college levels, career counseling and advisory committee resources are available under resource folders, and soft skills assessments, pre and post, have been made available in AET. Objective 2: Since the implementation of the certificate pathway, 27 high school students have earned completer certification. The total number of hours needed to complete this level of certification is 250 hours. This is the first year after the original implementation of the program and the number of completers will continue to grow in the future. The number of hours needed for completion at the community college level is 350 hours, and 450 hours at the university level. Table 1 above contains demographic data on students who are currently participating in the program. California has the largest female percentage of students participating in ACRS21 (56.8%) and the largest Hispanic population (48.02%). Idaho has the largest male percentage (52.96%) and Colorado has the lowest Hispanic population (21.13%). This data is collectedin the data management system in AET. Student demographics for underrepresented groups will continue to be available through AET as the program grows in numbers. Objective 3: DASH was not fully developed by the university. In it's place, a Career Mentoring and Job Shadowing program has been developed through the career center.The Mentoring and Job Shadowing Program matches potential employers with students who have identified the agriculture industry they would like to explore through mentoring and job shadowing opportunities. Objective 4: The Grad Leaders program was utilized to secure and monitor internship positions through the career center. Last year30 students successfully completed mentoring and job shadowing experiences. Objective 5:6 students completed USDA internships over the summer months, making a total of 16 students to complete the USDA internships over the past 2 years. Objective 6: 23 additionalTeacher Training Workshops have been conducted over the past year, making a total of 33 teacher training sessions overall. 16 of the workshops have been presented to community college instructors and the remaining seven have been presented to high school instructors and State Supervisors. 2, 181 teachers have participated in the trainings over the past two years. Objective 7: The longitudinal testing will begin next year to evaluate students' progress in soft skill development.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Freeman, S., Juarez, J. A Delphi Investigation to Determine Experiential
Learning Activities Utilized for Soft Skill Development at Agriculture
Community Colleges Across California. Poster Abstract presented at the 2022
Western Region American Association of Agricultural Educators Conference.
Las Cruces, New Mexico.
|
Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/21
Outputs
Target Audience:Thus far, our target audience has been agricultural teachers to inform them of the ACRS21 Certificate Pathway and how it can be implemented into their educational programs, which include high school, community college, and university levels. Most of our effort has been directed toward high school teachers, however some effort has been made to connect with community college and university instructors in preparation of expanding the transferable certificate in the future. In addition, school administrators and coordinators for Career Technical Education have been targeting to increase awareness of the ACRS21 Certificate Pathway. Lastly, a huge effort was made contacting agricultural employers in California to determine the types of skills needed in the agricultural industry. Over 100 major employers in the agricultural industry participated in a research study that identified the top 10 skills needed forhigh school, community college, and university level graduates. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The ACRS21 Certificate Pathway Project has provided numerous opportunities for professional growth to undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty. The list of opportunities include: Conference Attendance and Poster Presentation - 2021National Conference for the American Association of Agricultural Educators Conference Attendance and Poster Presentation - 2021 Western Regional Conference for the American Association of Agricultural Educators Conference Attendance and Manuscript Presentation,Outstanding Research Impact Award - 2021 Western Region Conference for the American Association of Agricultural Educators Conference Attendance - 2021 National Ag in the Classroom How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The ACRS21 Advisory Committee has been extremely instrumental in the creation of the program and disseminating information to community leaders in the agricultural industry. Three subcommittees were formed to target specific program needs. The subcommittees included the High School Certification, the Community College Certification, the Ag Industry, and Scholarship Committees. Their assistance has been invaluable in providing guidance and insight into preparing the certificate pathway for approval. The California Agriculture Teachers Association has provided opportunities for teacher training workshops and communication to agricultural teachers through Region Supervisor's online updates. In addition, the Ag Alert Magazine, published by the California Farm Bureau Federation, featured the ACRS21 Certificate Pathway in their article titled, Agricultural Employers Weigh in on 'Soft Skills', published on July 7, 2021. (https://www.agalert.com/story/?id=15136) What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Our goals include the following: High School Certificate - continue to market the pathway to agricultural teachers in Californiaby continuing our efforts with the California Agricultural Teachers Association. In addition, we plan to work with the National Association of Supervisors of Agricultural Education and AET to promote additional states to adopt the ACRS21 Certificate Pathway. Community College Certificate - continue to with the Community College Curriculum Committee to encourage instructors to attend teacher training workshops in preparation of the ACRS21 Certificate Pathway becoming available in the Fall of 2022. We also plan to continue collaborations with AET to provide training workshops to teachers. The ACRS21 Leadership Team willcreate 10 Teacher Training Modules, career counseling resources, and graphic organizers for community college instructors and students. Fresno State Certificate - continue collaborations with AET and the Career Center to conduct a pilot program involving the Wonderful Scholars Program and formally launch the university level certificate for all agricultural students attending Fresno Statein the Fall of 2022.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Objective 1: The ACRS21 Certification requirements have been created for high school, community college, and university level and have been implemented in the online student data system called the Agricultural Experience Tracker (AET) managed by our collaborating partners at Texas A&M, Kingsville.The high school certificate has been reviewed and adopted bythe California Agriculture Teachers Association and has been endorsed by the Fresno County Farm Bureau Association. A pilot program to evaluate the high school portion of the certificate was conducted in the spring of 2020. Multiple high schools participated to provide feedback on the usability of the AET online program. Based on teacher recommendations, changes were made in the areas of agriscience to provide additional ways for students to prove skill attainment through participation in other project areas such as livestock or plant production. The community college certificate has been approved by the California Community College Curriculum Committee and training workshops are planned in the fall of 2021. In addition, a pilot program will be conducted in the spring of 2022 to determine if any adjustments need to be made to the AET online program. The university certificate has been approved through the Jordan College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology and has been incorporatedinto the AET online program. The Fresno State Career Development Center will be providing student training workshopsand tracking internship, job shadowing, and mentoring experiences. The Wonderful Company is a major employer in the agricultural industry and sponsors numerous Agricultural Academy Programs in California and hundreds of their graduates are now attending Fresno State as part of the Wonderful Scholars Program. A pilot program involving the Wonderful Scholars Program is planned for the fall 0f 2021. Educational coordinators have been working with our leadership team to provide this opportunity for their students. Their feedback will be used to evaluate the effectiveness ofAET and to make adjustments if needed in the university level certificate requirements. Ten teacher training modules andcareer/academic resourceshave beencreated for the high school level certificateand have been made available on the Fresno State linkand the AET link.Imelda Dudley and her team of students have created the ACRS21 website and are building the shell to house the certificate information, modules, and teacher resources. Her team has also created numerous student and counselor guides to assist with mentoring. The ACRS21 Advisory Committee, made up of 30 agriculture industry representatives and educational partners,was established in September of2020and has been extremely instrumental in assisting with the creation and approval of the certificate requirements. Through their advisement, an Ag Skills Survey was administered to determine what skills are currently being sought by agriculture employers. The soft skills assessment instrument has been approved for use by the IRB committee at Fresno State and has been built into the online AET program that the students will use to document their work experience hours. Students will take the pre-test upon entering the pathway and will complete the post-test upon completion of the certificate. The teacher evaluation checklist for all three levels, high school, community college, and universityhas also been embeddedintoAET and isreadily available for teachers to utilize in approving certificate completers. Objective 2: The ACRS21 Certificate Pathway is now available to over 95,000 high school agricultural students inCalifornia. At the time of this reporting, 66 high schools, including one from the state of Idaho,have initiated certificate applications in AET comprising of 876 students. In addition, AET reportedseven high school certificate completers. Scholarship awardswere presented to 11 high school students ($750), and sixcollege students ($1,000). The student demographic data includes: males- 395 (45%), females - 481 (55%), American Indian - 11 (1%), Asian - 35 (4%), Black - 11 (1%), Hispanic - 358(41%), Native Alaskan - 1(.01%), Non Hispanic - 363 (41%), and Undeclared - 155 (18%). Objective 3: The Digital Agriculture Solutions Hub (DASH) was our original plan to connect students with job shadowing, internships, and mentoring opportunities. After realizing that the development of DASH was not going to fit within the timeline of this project, we have pivoted our direction toward the development of the Grad Leaders Program. The Grad Leaders Program is used campus wide to connect potential employers with students who would like to participate in internship, job shadowing, or mentoring experiences. This program is currently being expanded to connect students with career development opportunities and meet our student tracking needs. Objective 4: The Grad Leaders Platform will be used to connect students with employers and track student participation. In addition to the internship portion of the Grad Leaders Platform, the Jordan College Career Center has also developed Job Shadowing and Mentoring components to provide additional networking and work based learning experiences. The AET will also provide resources for students to connect with employers through Tallo, an online platform that matches students' career interests with potential career development opportunities, such as apprenticeships, internships, and scholarships. Students at all three levels will have access to AET accounts to record their experiential learning activities. The AET will track student progress and record certificate completers, which will provide useful data to help evaluate student success and skill attainment. Objective 5:We have received tremendous support from Juan Alvarez, USDA Liaison, Office of Partnerships & Public Engagement, and others withinUSDA to create blanket liability policies for our students participating in internship, job shadowing and mentoringprograms. To date, students have completed 6USDA internships and are initiatinga viable pipeline forfuture USDA interns. The ACRS21 Certificate Pathway will be available to all JCAST students in the fall of 2022, which will provide multiple opportunities for student to complete career preparation activities through the USDA internshipprograms. Objective 6: During year Fall 2020 - Fall 2021of this grant project, the ACRS21 Leadership Team has conducted a total of 15 presentations and/or workshops. The totalnumber of participants was 1,117 and include the following organizations: California State Department of Education, Agriculture Education State Supervisor and Regional Supervisors California Community College Curriculum Committee Fresno State's Agricultural Business Conference California Agricultural Teachers Association (CATA) Regional Roadshows for the following Regions:San Joaquin, Southern, South Coast, North Coast, Central, and Superior World Ag Expo 2021 American Association of Agricultural Educators California Women in Agriculture, Central Valley Chapter Fresno State Ag One Foundation In addition, teacher training workshops have been recorded and posted onAET (https://www.theaet.com/page.aspx?ID=318). Objective 7: Pre/post assessment of soft skill development have been included in the certification process for all three levels. The LEQ-H Soft Skill Assessment is completed online through AET and provides students with information on 8 different soft skill areas. As certificate completers increase over the next year, researchers will be able to evaluate student attainment of soft skills during their participation in the ACRS21 Certificate Pathway.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Freeman, S., Culbertson, A., Rocca, S., Standridge, C., Flores, J., & Henson, M.. Ag. Skills Survey: Skills Sought by Employers in the Agricultural Industry. Manuscript Abstract presented at the 2021 Western Region American Association of Agricultural Educators Conference, volume 40.
Winner of the 'Outstanding Research Impact' award
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