TEACHER ATTITUDES TOWARD PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATION-DEVELOPED, STATE BOARD-APPROVED STANDARDS FOR AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION

Accountability was the focus of this study of the attitudes of program personnel toward the teacher association-formulated and State Board-approved Standards for Agricultural Education in Georgia. Data were collected from state Agricultural Education personnel by securing their reactions to 32 statements about the Standards. Eighty-five percent of the personnel in Georgia participated. A Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient of.95 was determined for the instrument. The sample demographics were representative of the population for the state. Most respondents reported using the Standards within their departments, but many used them as a shared evaluation instrument. Respondents agreed on 11 statements, were undecided on 20 items, and disagreed with one item. Attitudes toward the Standards were affected by job description, years of experience, use made of the standards, age, gender, size of school, and ethnicity of respondents. Educational level and number of teachers of agriculture in the school had little effect on ratings of the statements about Standards