FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE EMPHASIS PLACED ON SUPERVISED OCCUPATIONAL EXPERIENCE IN VOCATIONAL AGRICULTURE PROGRAMS IN NORTH CAROLINA

The purpose of this study was to determine selected factors contributing to the degree of emphasis placed on supervised occupational experience programs in vocational agriculture in public secondary schools in Regions II, III, and V in North Carolina.;Analysis of Variance was used to test the significance of difference when comparing the variables. The .05 confidence level was selected to determine statistical significance.;The study revealed that: (1) the majority of the respondents were white males; (2) most of the teachers came from multi-teacher departments; (3) length of teacher's contract had no bearing on student's supervised occupational experience programs; (4) teachers and principals from the top schools rated teachers, curriculum, and teaching practices as strong or very strong components of the vocational agriculture program; (5) teachers in neither the top nor bottom schools recognized their supervised occupational experience programs as strong; (6) regular visits to homes of students were characteristic of teachers from top schools; (7) teachers from top schools perceived their principals as being more supportive of supervised occupational experience programs; (8) a majority of principals in both top and bottom schools felt supervised occupational experience to be an integral part of the total vocational agriculture program; (9) teacher expectations of students strongly influenced students' involvement in the supervised occupational experience program; (10) teachers in top schools believed their principals to be more supportive of supervised occupational experience programs; and (11) perceptions of support by principals seemed to influence teachers and programs more than perceptions of support from local education agency administrators.;Data were collected from high school vocational agriculture teachers, principals, and local directors of vocational education programs. Forty schools were selected for the study based upon the percentage of vocational agriculture students the teachers reported in State Department End-of-Year Reports to have a supervised occupational experience program. These percentages were used to divide the schools into the top twenty and bottom twenty.