Abstract
Early agricultural education programs in the United States existed to promote new methods and techniques to further agricultural production. Today, extending integration, general knowledge, appreciation, and literacy about agriculture is the goal, especially at the middle school level. Not only is agricultural education designed to encompass academics, but science and technology, literacy, and career preparedness are parts of the total agricultural education program. Since the passage of No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), more pressure has been put on teachers to generate increased student academic performance and improvement of test scores. The purpose of this research study was to determine if there were statistically significant differences in academic achievement on a state mandated assessment of students who completed a yearlong middle school agricultural education course and students who completed only an eight week middle school agricultural education course in the same school, with the same instructor; the significance in time spent in the course was the main issue in question. The findings showed a statistically significant relationship between the completion of the year-long agricultural education course and math, science, and social studies scores on the state mandated assessment. For example, both 7th and 8th grade students who completed a year-long brain-based agricultural education course had higher mean scores than students who completed only an eight-week brain-based agricultural education course on the math, science, and social studies portions of the assessment.