Perceptions of Missouri secondary school agriculture teachers, principals, and superintendents concerning supervised agricultural experience programs

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to analyze the perceptions of agriculture teachers, principals, and superintendents from schools with the top ranked and bottom ranked supervised agricultural experience programs (SAEPs) in Missouri.;Procedures. The sample included 63 agriculture teachers, principals and superintendents from a population of 244 agriculture programs in Missouri. The responses from the agriculture teachers, principals, and superintendents from the selected programs were the independent variables. The dependent variable was the scores on the opinionnaire.;The statistical package for social science (SPSS) using the General Linear Models Procedure, was used to estimate the reliability analysis. The Statistical Analysis System (SAS) using the analysis of variance procedure was used to test the hypotheses at the.10 alpha level. Since a significant analysis of variance was found, a post-hoc test (Scheffe's) was used to determine which means were significantly different.;Findings. There was no difference in perception of educators between the top and bottom ranked SAEPs. But there were differences among the agriculture teachers, principals, and superintendents opinions about the SAEP.;The null hypothesis was rejected at the.10 alpha level and a Scheffe's post-hoc test was run. The Scheffe's test indicated there were significant differences in opinion between agriculture teachers and principals, agriculture teachers and superintendents. But not between principals and superintendents. There were no significant differences between the interactions of the top and bottom ranked programs.;Conclusions. The difference in SAEPs in Missouri is in the support provided by the schools and the administrators backing of the program. Agriculture teachers, principals, and superintendents agree that successful SAEPs include: (1) A planned course of study including recordkeeping and supervision. (2) A program that helps develop positive student work ethics and character while providing hands-on problem solving skills that can be used in the work environment.;Areas needing improvement for successful SAEPs are: (1) Scheduling of supervision by the agriculture teacher for the SAEP. (2) Time for planning the SAEP. (3) Administrators involvement in the SAEP.