Date of Award
5-1-2018
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Department
Agricultural Sciences
First Advisor
Pense, Seburn
Abstract
This dissertation employed a 5-year longitudinal repeated measures research design that examined whether the shortage of licensed high school agriculture teachers in Illinois impacted the quality of Illinois programs. Due to the shortage of licensed agriculture teachers, the hiring of provisional instructors doubled over the five-year study. Every high school agriculture program in Illinois, from fiscal year 2014 to fiscal year 2018, was included in this study. Each school’s Incentive Funding Grant application was explored using data mining to collect the overall X-scores, and all the quality indicators the individual schools achieved. Results indicated that schools with licensed instructors had X-scores 18.3 percent higher than schools with provisional instructors. Specific quality indicators were also evaluated, which related to SAE, FFA, and classroom instruction. Achievement of those activities illustrated wide gaps between schools with provisional and schools with fully licensed instructors. Significant differences were found in the quality of programs based on areas other than license such as: gender of instructors, length of teacher’s contract, retention of instructors, participation in career development events, and geographic region. Results of this study suggested the Illinois State Board of Education and the universities develop a path for provisional instructors to receive full licensure without leaving their teaching positions.
Access
This dissertation is Open Access and may be downloaded by anyone.