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Feature Stories
A Recipe for Improvement | New Standards Help Educators Improve Program Quality
Using an Evaluation Tool Brings Balance, not Perfection |
Teachers Embrace the New NQPS Standards
Agriscience Prepares and Engages Students
A Recipe for Improvement
~ A Note from the Editor
Everyone knows the macro nutrients for plants are NPK. The skilled horticulture professional knows how much of each of those ingredients to apply to meet plant requirements, to induce growth and blooming, to reduce deficiencies, and produce the optimum crop. But do all agricultural education professionals know the macro nutrients that support optimum growth for their programs? Do they recognize the proportions of each ingredient that is required for success and how to balance them to maintain an atmosphere that isn’t too acidic or basic for all stakeholders?
This year, Making a Difference is focusing on the macro nutrients of agricultural education that are necessary for creating a growing and thriving department, with tips and discussion packed into each issue on how you can improve your department through program design and instruction; experiential learning; leadership development; school and community partnerships; marketing; professional growth; and program planning and evaluation. In this month’s edition, we’re going more in-depth on the National Quality Program Standards, providing some background and offering testimonials on those states/schools who have found success with the NQPS. While your program “recipe” will likely never be perfect, this tool will help you work to improve it and develop a balanced application.
Check out New Standards Help Educators Improve Program Quality to see how Nevada and Montana are utilizing the NQPS and how it has affected their state’s agriculture programs. Then take a look at Using an Evaluation Tool Brings Balance, not Perfection to learn more on the history of the NQPS and see how St. Louis has incorporated the improvement tool into their programs.
And if you want to hear from a teacher’s perspective how the National Quality Program Standards assessment tool has helped them improve their agriculture program, don’t miss Teachers Embrace the New NQPS Standards, where we hear success stories from teachers in Arkansas, Louisiana and Montana.
Local Program Success specialist Kevin Keith further explains the need for NQPS in his Perspectives piece. And in our newest soon-to-be regular feature, LK Spotlight, which will be a monthly editorial by a teacher who utilizes LifeKnowledge for program enhancement, Lance Jagers tells us how using LK materials has led to his positive work/life balance.
Don’t forget to check out September’s Question for the Profession, where LPS specialist Nina Crutchfield asks, Are You an Ostrich, a Worker Bee, or a Beaver? How can the National Quality Program Standards help your program based on the type of worker you are?
And finally, you’ll definitely want to check out this month’s special Agriscience Package, where we highlight the 2007 Agriscience Teacher of the Year, Melissa Braun, and get some valuable tips and lesson plans to incorporate into your agriscience program.
Summer is over and it’s back to work! Count on Making a Difference to be your monthly source for tips and tools that can help you take your program to the next level and help you achieve the much sought-after work/life balance.
Welcome back!
Amber Striegel
Editor