| The purpose of this study was to describe the perceptions of Kentucky agricultural education teachers regarding the alignment and coherence of the Kentucky Occupational Skills Standards Assessment (KOSSA) assessment system. The objectives were to describe teachers' perceptions regarding the alignment and coherence between the KOSSA standards and the KOSSA assessment, the alignment between the program of studies (POS) standards and KOSSA standards and assessment, and the KOSSA assessment in general, with the goal of providing recommendations for improvement pertaining to the three objectives.;To meet the purpose of this study, a descriptive approach was employed with all three objectives. For the first two objectives, frequency and percentage descriptive statistical methods were employed. For the third objective, a two-step thematic reduction process was employed to determine central or recurring themes in response to the open-ended questions. The population of this census study was Kentucky agricultural education teachers who were members of the Kentucky Association of Agricultural Educators: also known as KAAE ( N = 219). Final respondents completing the researcher-designed questionnaire were 123 (56%).;Results from the data indicated that most teachers perceived the KOSSA assessment system, in general, as effective and aligned well, with the exception of the demonstrated need for constant and systematic evaluation and revision of the KOSSA assessment system. One of the major concerns yielded in the data was the frequency of irrelevant, poorly-written KOSSA assessment items contained on the assessment, and that this problem could most likely be addressed by through development, evaluation, and revision of KOSSA assessment items utilizing different means to develop the items. Also, the development of supplemental educational materials, the elimination of the program of studies (POS) or certain aspects of the POS, and assessment instrument modifications which included, but are not limited to: test date extensions, adjustment in minimum passing scores, implementation of online testing, and the total elimination of the response scenario portion of the assessment.;Recommendations for practice and future research should focus on expanding the population of respondents to other aspects of agricultural education in the state of Kentucky, as well as possibly conducting a study regarding the actual alignment of various assessment items to their respectively assessed standards. |
