ACTION AGENDA - WORK IN PROGRESS

Next Steps for Agricultural Education

A Strategic Plan for Agricultural Education: An Invitation for Dialogue
The following link illustrates a look at where agricultural education is today and the initiatives that may be in its path for the future. Click here for the document written by Doug Loudenslager, Chief Operating Officer of the National FFA Organization and Foundation.

2005-06 Annual Report on Ag Education

 2005-06 Annual Report on Agricultural Education
Click here for the pdf version of the report. Click here for the population density map that you can zoom in closer to your state and see the population density areas more clearly than in the .pdf file.

ACTE

 Business Education Partnership
The Council invested $15,000 to partner with the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) to strengthen grass roots advocacy work in support of funding for career and technical education. (Perkins)

Task Force

Curriculum Framework
The Council has recently appointed a task force to be chaired by Joel Larsen, Council board member from Minnesota, to develop a curriculum framework Task Force for a potential program with “Project Lead the Way”. Project Lead the Way is a highly successful high school pre-engineering program which may serve as a model for a similar program in Agricultural Education. This task force will also review other alternative growth and development avenues.

Management Team

 10 X 15 Management Team
The Council has adopted a goal of having 10,000 quality agricultural education Management programs by 2015. The role of the Management Team which includes The Team Council, NASAE, NAAE, AAAE, FFA, ACTE, USDE, Alumni, and Industry Representatives is to address how to achieve the goal. This group is an action arm of The Council and responsible for the development and oversight of a tactical/operational plan to achieve 10,000 quality programs by 2015.

Development Council

 Quality Indicators
A Council development group chaired by Steve Brown and Richard Norris, board members from Missouri have nearly completed a set of quality Group indicators (standards) for a local program of agricultural education. This work will lead to a set of guidelines for operating a quality program and will likely be available electronically.

Council Committee

Annual Status Report
A Council Committee chaired by Nancy J. Trivette, Consultant to The Council from New Jersey, will be completing an Annual State Report of Agricultural Education in the U. S. for presentation at the February 2007 Ag Ed In-service. This report is based on the work done by Dr. Bob Martin of Iowa State (report submitted in 2005).

Task Force

Advocacy Task Force
The Council has established an Advocacy Task Force chaired by Larry Gundrum, Industry Representative (Kraft, retired). Long range, this group will focus on local advocacy, advocacy training for teachers and alternative resources of funding for local programs of agricultural education. Jay Jackman, Executive Director of NAAE works with this group.

Career Cluster Initiative

Council Named Cluster Leader
Phase one of the Career Cluster project is complete. See http://www.careerclusters.org/clusters/anr.htm. The Council strongly supports phase two which is entitled “Vision 2020 – Building a Seamless Educational System for the Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources Industry”. See http://www.agknow.org/career-clusters/. Go to the Career Cluster drop down Menu and check out the media center for a power point on Vision 2020. Contact Larry Case at lcase@ffa.org or Curtis Shumaker at shumaker@brightok.net for More information.

Task Force

Curriculum Standards Task Force
The Curriculum Standards Task Force chaired by David Hall, Consultant to The Council from Montana, is in the process of selecting a contractor to do the Development work. The curriculum work will be aligned with the Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources Career Cluster and the seven pathways.

Bylaws of the Council

 Revisions to The Council Bylaws were made to reflect the realignment and redirection. Click here to view The Council Bylaws (pdf document).