Student achievement and factors related to achievement in a state agricultural mechanics contest

Agricultural educators profess that a total secondary agricultural education program consists of three essential and interdependent components. These components are classroom and laboratory instruction, supervised agricultural experience, and the FFA (Phipps and Osborne, 1988). FFA contests are designed to complement classroom and laboratory instruction. According to the 1989 Official FFA Manual (National FFA Supply Service, p. 44), “All FFA Contests are to be a natural outgrowth of the instructional program. The contests help make classes more interesting and encourage the development of special skills.” Smith and Kahler (1987, p.45) stated that “In order for the national FFA contests to provide truly educational activities, these contests must be continuously evaluated and revised. ” This statement is also true for FFA contests at the chapter, district, and state levels. Buriak, Harper and Gliem (1985) analyzed contestant scores on the National FFA Agricultural Mechanics Contest. The researchers found that undetermined contestant variables accounted for a majority of the variance in the total contest scores. Buriak, Harper and Gliem (1985, p.32) concluded that “Investigations of the prediction value of selected variables could prove useful in the development and enhancement of the contest.” Research has indicated that several student characteristics are associated with achievement in agricultural mechanics. These characteristics include: gender, number of mathematics courses completed, average grade in mathematics courses, average grade in agriculture courses, and far