Determining why agricultural educators are leaving the profession and how to increase the retention rate

The field of agricultural education has experienced a consistent labor shortage the past several decades. Consequently, many school districts struggle to fill their open positions, while others are forced to shut down their agricultural programs completely due to inadequate staffing. Research indicates teacher attrition as a predominant factor behind the teacher shortage. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to determine why agricultural educators are leaving the profession and identify potential action steps to alleviate the problem. Specific objectives included: (1) identify factors influencing current agricultural educators’ decision to leave or stay in the profession; (2) determine factors associated with former agricultural educators’ final decision to leave the profession; and (3) identify factors that would influence an agricultural educator to stay in, and a former agricultural educator to return to, the profession. Researchers developed and administered questionnaires, as well as conducted interviews, to gather data from agricultural educators currently in the profession and with those who have already left the profession for alternative employment. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the quantitative component of the study. Open-coding was utilized to reveal concepts and develop themes for the qualitative component of the study. Results indicate agricultural educators are satisfied with their careers and significant differences did not exist between those contemplating leaving and those who were not. However, differences existed between groups in areas related to recognition and school policy and administration. Furthermore, the data revealed mid-career agricultural educators experience similar frustrations as teachers in other professional life stages; however, they seem to struggle more with balancing their personal and professional lives due to changing family dynamics. Researchers discovered personal factors were the leading contributor to all former teachers’ decision to leave the profession. Interestingly, compensation was deemed the lowest contributor. Moreover, significant differences were identified between novice and experienced teachers in several areas. Unrealized expectations and the belief of being an excellent agricultural educator and having a satisfying personal life are incompatible, surfaced as underlying factors as to why a teacher leaves the profession. To increase retention rates, the profession must provide teachers additional support in addition to creating a philosophical shift towards a more sustainable model which is mindful of out-of-classroom expectations

Over The Edge: Factors Nudging Mid-Career, School- Based Agriculture Teachers Out of the Profession

The field of agricultural education has experienced a consistent labor shortage the past several decades. Consequently, many school districts struggle to fill their open positions, while others are forced to shut down their agricultural programs completely due to inadequate staffing. Teacher attrition has been identified as a predominant factor behind the teacher shortage. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to identify factors influencing mid-career school-based agriculture teachers’ decision to stay in or leave the secondary agriculture teaching profession. Researchers developed and administered questionnaires, as well as conducted interviews, to gather data from current, mid-career agriculture teachers to answer the research questions. The researcher’s discovered mid-career agriculture teachers are satisfied with their careers and significant differences do not exist in overall job satisfaction between those contemplating leaving and those who were not. However, differences existed between groups in areas related to recognition and school policy and administration. Additional findings suggest mid-career agriculture teachers value student and program successes, autonomy and variety, and stakeholder support. Moreover, the researcher’s discovered mid-career agriculture teachers experience similar frustrations as teachers in other professional life stages; however, they seem to struggle more with balancing their personal and professional lives due to changing family dynamics

Spontaneous otoacoustic emissions in a chinchilla: audiometric correlates as seen in audiogram microstructure

This paper reviews a study to evaluate the audiogram microstructure of a chinchilla with a documented spontaneous otoacoustic emission

Sensitive Cryogenic Transducer Development and Analysis for Use on Gravity Wave Detectors.

The design and development of an improved superconducting inductively modulated transducer is discussed. The transducer is designed to optimize the performance of a 2-mode, resonant bar, gravitational wave antenna. A detailed theoretical analysis which includes all relevant noise sources is described. Conditions for optimizing 2-mode detector performance are derived and design curves are presented. Based on the results of this analysis, an optimal transducer has been designed for use on the LSU gravitational wave detector. The fabrication and testing of several optimal mass 400gm transducer resonators is described. The effects of low temperature annealing on the mechanical Qs of the Nb resonators are discussed. The components of the transducer are discussed in detail. A superconducting flux transformer has been made to provide proper impedance matching to the squid amplifier. Its design achieves high coupling and low losses while a large d.c. supercurrent flows in its primary. A suspension system has been built to measure high mechanical Qs in heavy mass transducers. The suspension system did not limit Qs below 1.8\*10\sp6. Two optimized transducers have been built and tested. Both achieved high electrical Qs of approximately 10\sp5. This electrical Q represents an improvement by a factor of approximately 5 over previous inductive transducers used on gravitational wave antennae. One of these transducers is mounted on the LSU gravitational wave antenna which is being cooled to 4K at the time of this writing. All the design goals for this optimized transducer have been achieved: optimal mass ($\approx$400gm), high mechanical Q ($\approx$1.8\*10\sp6), high electrical Q ($\approx$1\*10\sp5), strong coupling and optimal impedance matching to a BTI d.c. squid amplifier. The noise temperature of the LSU antenna equipped with this transducer is predicted using the theoretical analysis mentioned earlier. Based on the system\u27s measured parameters, the detector is expected to achieve a noise temperature of $\approx$2mK. This represents a factor of 50 in improvement over its previous performance level. By coupling the optimal transducer to a squid with an energy sensitivity of 370h, an antenna noise temperature of less than 300$\mu$K can be achieved while operating at an ambient temperature of 4K. The noise analysis of a 3-mode gravitational wave detector is given. Design curves for optimizing the performance of a 3-mode system are presented. It is concluded that an optimized 3-mode system operating at 4K can achieve a noise temperature of 71$\mu$K

A mediated model of trust and its antecedents in the client-consultant relationship

This study seeks to improve the contributions of performance consultants, instructional design consultants, and training consultants by explaining the effect that several variables have on trust as a mediator to relationship commitment within the context of the client-consultant relationship. The participants were 521 college students from two 4-year universities. Participants were randomly assigned to one of eight scenario-based questionnaires which measured the effect of three manipulated variables - perceived level of expertise, shared values, and sharing of meaningful information - on trust as a mediator to relationship commitment. The ability to trust, the comparison level of the alternative, and dependence were measured as control variables. Both structural equation modeling and multiple linear regression were utilized to determine variable relationships. Trust was found to partially mediate between sharing of meaningful information and relationship commitment, as well as between shared values and relationship commitment. Perceived level of expertise was not found to be a predictor or trust, but rather, a predictor of shared values which partially mediates between perceived level of expertise and trust. Shared values was found to be a core construct that mediates between perceived level of expertise and relationship commitment and sharing of meaningful information and trust. Sharing of meaningful information was similarly found to be a key factor that affected perceived level of expertise, shared values, and trust. Perceived level of expertise partially mediates between sharing of meaningful information and shared values. The data suggest that trust covaries strongly with relationship commitment, shared values, and sharing of meaningful information in the client-consultant context. Sharing of meaningful and perceived level of expertise have a strong, positive, correlation. The findings suggest that consultants can pro-actively manage the relationships with their clients by focusing on the key factors that influence trust and thus ultimately affect overall relationship commitment

Why Do They Leave and Where Do They Go? A Qualitative Study of Illinois School-Based Agriculture Teachers Who Left The Profession

Approximately half of a million educators move or leave the profession each year with an estimated 41% of all educators exiting within the first five years. Additionally, agriculture teacher preparation programs are not producing enough graduates to meet current demands with 1,476 agricultural teacher vacancies existing in 2016 and only 772 individuals completing an approved teacher preparation program to become fully licensed. While the lack of young people entering the teaching profession is concerning, researchers have suggested teacher attrition is the predominant reason behind the ongoing teacher shortage. The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify factors influencing former agriculture teachers’ decision to leave the classroom. Themes developed that stem from unrealized expectations for one’s career and the belief that being an excellent agriculture teacher is incompatible with a satisfying personal life. A final theme indicated the need for additional support alongside a philosophical shift in the profession that dictates “more is not always better.” Recommendations are made for further research along with ideological and practical shifts needed within the profession to improve teacher retention

Structuring Joint Action Routines: A Strategy for Facilitating Communication and Language Development in the Classroom

The study of early child language has produced a wealth of new data and con­comitant theories over the past decade, and these new perspectives offer important im­plications to those of us engaged in clinical practice. We have noted elsewhere that this current literature on early child language has specific implications for designing ap­propriate targets, contexts, and procedures for language therapy (McLean and Snyder-­McLean, 1978; McLean, Snyder-McLean, and Sack, 1983). In this article, we will con­centrate on these two latter areas: contexts and procedures for language intervention and, more specifically, on the combination of these elements in the form of structured joint action routines

Nilpotent Marsh and SUSY QM

We consider the nilpotent additions to classical trajectories in supersymmetric and nonsupersymmetric theories. The condition of anilpotence of action on some generalized solutions leads to the Witten supersymmetric Lagrangian. The condition of anilpotence of topological charge is the same as one of superpotential with spontaneous broken supersymmetry. We should vanish half of Grassmann constants of integration, because in this case only we obtain the same number of normalized bosonic and fermionic zero modes.Comment: 8 pages, Latex 2.09. Talk given at the conference in memory of V.I. Ogievetski, Dubna, July, 1997. To be published in the Proceeding