What do college freshmen know about agriculture? An evaluation of agricultural literacy.
Introduction The purpose of this study was to evaluate the agricultural literacy of college freshmen at a central Texas university. A score of 70% was considered acceptable; however, the mean overall score on the agricultural literacy test was fairly low (50.4% A comparison of the overall mean literacy scores based on gender showed that male literacy scores 51.3% were significantly different .05) than female scores 49.9% Students majoring in science 54.0% achieved an overall literacy score which was significantly .05) higher than undecided majors 47.4% The mean literacy scores of students previously enrolled in high school agriculture classes 54.1% were noticeably higher than those students who were not enrolled in high school agriculture 49.6% but the overall scores were not significantly different .05) Agricultural literacy should be considered a critical aspect of general education throughout the public school system. Additionally, colleges and departments of agriculture should consider the results of the study and start discussions about what the profession should do about agricultural illiteracy. In 1988, the National Research Council (NRC) recommended that students in grades K 12 receive some systematic instruction in agriculture (NRC, 1988) This recommendation was heartily endorsed by agricultural literacy experts, citing that as voters, policy makers, and consumers, Americans should be well informed about their food and fiber system. The apparent lack of agricultural literacy among the general population in 21st century America is an ongoing concern (Leising et al. 2003; Pense and Leising, 2004; Bellah and Dyer, 2007) Previous research indicates that nearly 90% of the American population is two to three generations removed from production agriculture (Leising et al. 1998) Today less than 2% of the population is living or working on farms (Womochil, 2007) The result of this separation from agriculture is a population that knows little about its food supply, a situation which agricultural educators consider potentially dangerous. Agriculture determines a nation's general welfare and standard of living, yet in 21st century America, the population knows little about the production, processing, marketing, distribution, regulation, and research that make up its food and fiber supply (Leising et al. 1998) Lack of understanding about agriculture can also lead to public misunderstandings about agricultural issues, such as the environmental impact of agriculture, the utilization efficiency of resources in agriculture, and the safety of our food supply (Nordstrom et al. 2000) Agricultural products are abundant and critical to American lifestyles, and a strong case can be made for consumer awareness regarding understanding of agricultural systems (Terry, 2004) Bellah et al.(2004) suggest that agricultural literacy must be viewed as lifelong learning. Furthermore, the educational system must make a conscious effort to address agricultural literacy and redesign curricula to include more agricultural literacy competencies. Many agriculture producer organizations provide educational materials for teachers to use in the classroom. Two programs, Agriculture in the Classroom (AITC) and A Guide to Food and Fiber Systems Literacy (FFSL) stand out in providing helpful materials and guidelines to promote literacy in agriculture nationwide. These programs, while not formally connected, provide teachers with valuable information, including lesson plans and curriculum, to integrate agriculture into core academic areas. The integration of material other than that following state based standards has been extremely difficult for teachers due to concerns about high stakes testing and educational accountability mandated by No Child Left Behind legislation (USDE, 2010) Teachers are pressured to teach only competencies related to high stakes test items and information required by state standards. Deviation from this practice is avoided due to concerns about nonrenewal of teaching contracts or contribution to loss of school funding due to low test scores. As a result, the agricultural literacy curricula offered by AITC and FFSL are often overlooked. General education faculty members at college and universities experience similar problems. Faculty members with an agriculture background find it hard to deviate from the syllabus to discuss pertinent agricultural issues. The AITC program was established in 1981, and M p M M p M