PROGRAM EVALUATION
Southern Boone County R-1 Schools
Program Evaluated: Career Technical Education
Date Submitted to the Board of Education: December 14, 2020
Person(s) Responsible:
FACS: Jodi Richardson
Business: Kathy Center and Kasey Gatson
Agriculture Education: Justin Belew and Rebekah Hammett Engineering: Ericca Thornhill
What data/evaluation criteria illustrates the effectiveness of this area?
Middle School Agriculture Education:
Exploring agriculture classes are semester-long classes that have A and B day enrollment. This fall, all of the 7th grade middle school students will experience 8 weeks of exploring agriculture which includes units on Missouri Agriculture and Animal
Science. 7th grade students learned 8 power tools and had to receive 100% on their safety tests to go to the shop and use the wood working equipment. In this fast paced class, students construct two projects: a Tic-Tac-Toe board and a foot stool. They also learn how to use a computer drawing program called Vcarve. Vcarve works with our wood shopbot and is able to router designs that the students create. The shopbot has not functioned for the past four years, but with the help of a community member and determined teachers it is up and running. The Natural Resource based 8th grade Exploring Agriculture has open enrollment in the spring and is a semester-long class that has A and B day enrollment. There are 50 students currently enrolled in the 8th grade class this semester. All of these students will receive their Missouri Department of Conservation Hunter’s Education Certificate through classroom and skills sessions where the students demonstrate their learning through hands-on exercises. 8th grade students are also constructing a Natural Resource based wood working project; this year the project is a bluebird house.
middle school group. On average there are 25 middle schoolers that participate in a range of activities that include going to Shooting Star Trail and cleaning up invasive plant species, stream monitoring, storm drain stenciling, canning and cooking, enjoying holiday themed activities and agriculture olympics.
High School
FACS:
The FACS department has one full time teacher (Jodi Richardson) and currently has a total enrollment for the 2020-21 school year of 226 students. The 2020-21 pre-enrollment for FACS classes increased by 34% compared to 2019-20. Student enrollment in FACS classes has been increasing every year. The FACS department offers twelve classes that students can take: Child Development, Advanced Child Development, Introduction to Foods, Culinary Skills, Americana Foods, World Foods, Career Development Entrepreneurship, Textiles for Living I, Textiles for Living II, Advanced Textiles I, Advanced Textiles II, and Interior Design. Two foods classes are offered on an every other year rotating schedule. The Foods classes are the most popular FACS classes every year.
Business:
The business department has two full time teachers (Kathy Center and Kasey Gatson) and has a total enrollment of 300 for the 2020-2021 school year. The
enrollment for the 2019-2020 school year was 239. This is a 25.5% increase from last year. (61 more students) The business department has been changing and adding different classes that students can take. Classes offered include Personal Finance, Computer Applications, Computer Science, Accounting, Yearbook, Intro to Yearbook, Business Technology, Web Design, Entrepreneurship, Multimedia I, Multimedia II and Supervised Business Experience.
Agriculture Education:
The Agriculture Education Department has two teachers that each offer 5
The Southern Boone Agriculture department is one of the top ranked FFA programs in the country. Currently, there are 110 FFA members. We have an officer team made up of 10 FFA members and plan a detailed program of activities. Our members have opportunities to participate in activities and events on the Local, Area, District, State and National level. Last year we had two Area officers and have had three past Missouri State FFA Officers. This spring during the virtual MO State FFA
convention we were selected as the 2nd best Chapter on the State level for our program of activities and went on to be a Top Ten in the National Chapter Program at the
national level. We had a winning category in our program of activities at the State level, ‘Strengthening Agriculture’. Our application was judged at the National Level and we were a top ten chapter in Building Communities. This is highly competitive and is a huge accomplishment for our size of program. We also have had students competing
individually with their supervised agricultural experience programs.This year we had three State Proficiency winners, Cole Hammett in Specialty Crop Production, Ethan Hilgedick in Fruit Production and Amanda Belew with Wildlife Production and
Management. These members went on to be selected as National FFA Finalists with their proficiency. They are competing against each state and only 4 finalists are
selected in each Proficiency category to compete for the top spot. Amanda Belew was a National Proficiency winner. This is the first ever accomplishment of this magnitude for Ashland FFA. Students also participated on Career Development Event teams. This spring due to Covid-19, we were not able to finish our contest season and had to
perform all the contests virtually at the end of August. Each year Ashland FFA members receive Group I rating and college credit for their outstanding performance. Our
program provides students with the foundations of agriculture that they need to exceed in the workforce, but also the leadership skills necessary to be successful in life.
Engineering:
The engineering department has one full time teacher (Ericca Thornhill) and currently has a total enrollment for the 2020-2021 school year of 13 students. The 2019-20 enrollment for Engineering class was 22 students, so the class decreased by 59% compared to 2019-20. The department offers one course that students can take: Project Lead the Way (PLTW) Introduction to Engineering. The PLTW national
What has changed since the last program evaluation?
Middle School
Agriculture Education:
We provide 6-8th grade middle school students an opportunity to enroll in agriculture classes. Each grade level is offered an Exploring Agriculture class with emphasis on: 6th grade plant science, 7th grade animal science and 8th grade natural resources. Due to scheduling changes we are not offering any 6th grade classes this year, but instead all 7th graders will take an agriculture class.
High School FACS:
The FACS department is incorporating more technology into all the courses by utilizing Google Classroom. This allows students to complete their assignments even when they are not in the classroom and have to learn virtually. During the 2019-2020 school year, the FACS department began offering Advanced Textiles I & II classes. These classes were offered because of student requests. Advanced Textiles is embedded in the Textiles I & II classes. It has been rewarding to see how students have grown in their sewing construction and problem solving skills.
Business:
Business has added an Intro to Yearbook course to prepare underclassmen to step in and be knowledgeable yearbook contributors as upperclassmen. Multimedia II was added to allow students to continue to explore different Adobe software and learn by doing creative projects of their own. Entrepreneurship was offered last year for the first time but there wasn’t space for it this year with the new Intro to Yearbook and Multimedia II courses. Accounting also came back this year and there are a few students enrolled who are hoping to make accounting a career. Room 404 received a Clear Touch board. Room 402 was rearranged to better serve students so all the desks/computers face the front of the classroom.
Agriculture Education:
fall vegetable crop. Students continue to learn practical hands-on knowledge through their agriculture classes.
Engineering:
The main change to the engineering department was the hiring of Ericca Thornhill for the 2020-21 school year. She has 20+ years of experience teaching chemistry, physics, principles of technology, and other science classes, in which
engineering challenges and lessons were integral to student learning. She continues to use the PLTW curriculum, and the 3D printer and laptops that were purchased in 2018. They work well. There is no TSA club at this time.
What next steps would better serve our students?
Middle School
Agriculture Education
The middle school is moving in the right direction with planning for its own facility when the new middle school addition is added on.
High School FACS:
To better serve our students in the FACS curriculum, I would like to see the FACS room updated to include built in sewing cabinets, more electrical outlets, and add another kitchen to better accommodate the increased enrollment in the four foods
classes. Currently, there are three usable kitchens that can accommodate four students per kitchen. Most foods classes are maxed out at 24 students this school year. Each foods lab takes two days to complete. Students are divided into two groups: one group will complete the foods lab and then the next day they will work on a unit assignment or project while the other group completes the lab. It limits the number of food labs that can be completed in a semester.
As enrollment increases, so does the need for an additional FACS teacher. With the addition of another FACS teacher, the department could offer more sections of Foods classes and limit the class size to maximize food lab experiences. We could also offer all four foods classes every year instead of every other year.
Business:
access to the program and we had to do something else. In the classrooms we are using Adobe software that is 8 years old. Since 2017 the Adobe Suite is no longer available for purchase but instead customers must purchase Creative Cloud
subscriptions. The business department could also benefit from updating the software to Microsoft Office 2019. To best serve the students the business department needs to stay up to date with the constantly changing computer programs.
Room 402 needs new computer desks to accommodate students that are in computer classes and Personal Finance. The desk space is very limited for students to complete work. A desk for both the computer and writing space would be most
beneficial. Also, the electricity is only connected to 4 poles inside room 402. The
electricity needs to be rewired to set up the classroom in a manner that is conducive to both students and the teacher. In order for the desks to face the front of the classroom, the electricity has to be on the wall around the room and maybe keep it in the poles as well.
Agriculture Education:
The best thing for the practical arts department is to construct a new building that provides our students with the best opportunity to advance in our programs. Currently the high school agriculture building is out of date and needs to be improved. We need more space so that we are safely working in the shop. There is not enough ventilation to properly run welding equipment and to clean the air for the students. The greenhouse configuration is not conducive for large class sizes. Students can not move down the aisle without touching classmates. Agriculture students have to walk across the parking lot in the rain, snow, freezing temperatures which for some is a deterrent to enroll in an agriculture class. When the weather is bad the students are picked up with a bus so they don’t have to start class miserable. We lose approximately 6 minutes per class period making sure our students have enough time to get to our building and to leave our building and get to their next class on time.
Engineering:
At the last writing in 2018, it was suggested that another course could be offered to allow learners to develop their skills at a higher level. PLTW does offer the next level, Principles of Engineering, which goes more in depth on mechanisms, strength of
