Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Date
Fall 2020
Publication Title
Journal of Agricultural Education
Department
Agricultural Science
College/School
Hutson School of Agriculture
Abstract
This article describes the collaborative efforts of various state and national agencies working together to recruit and retain agriculture teachers in the states of Kentucky, South Carolina, and Ohio. We contrast multiple measures of recruitment and retention in these states with those from the comparator states of Arkansas, West Virginia, and Alabama. The strategies outlined market to new agriculture teachers and maintain current teachers in the profession targeting work-life balance, emotional, physical and social health. These have been a focal point in the federal State Teach Ag Results (STAR) program, but the effects of participation in STAR on recruitment and retention require additional investigation. Using a difference-in-differences regression model, we assume parallel trends and no spillovers (SUTVA) between participating and non-participating states in the Southeastern US and Ohio Valley regions to model changes in multiple measures of recruitment and retention of agriculture teachers. We find a positive and significant effect of STAR participation on recruitment, an insignificantly positive effect of participation on retention, and an insignificantly negative impact of participation on creation of new agricultural positions in public schools. Our results suggest that recruitment is lagged behind existing positions, which necessitates further work investigating new policy aimed at filling those positions before creating any new ones.
Recommended Citation
Guffey, K. B., & Young, J. S. (2020). Recruitment and retention of agriculture teachers in the southeast: An empirical analysis of the STAR program. Journal of Agricultural Education, 61(4), 203-213. http://doi.org/10.5032/jae.2020.04203
Included in
Agricultural and Resource Economics Commons, Education Economics Commons, Higher Education Commons, Labor Economics Commons, Public Economics Commons
Comments
This is peer-reviewed article published by the American Association for Agricultural Education (AAAE) in the Journal of Agricultural Education, available at http://doi.org/10.5032/jae.2020.04203