High-quality professional development programs are important to all agricultural education teachers, regardless of their stage in the teaching profession. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the perception of Minnesota SBAE teachers in the areas of program design and management, leadership, and Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE)…

This study characterized perceptions of agricultural leadership programs in colleges of agriculture, food, life, human, or environmental sciences at 1,862 land-grant institutions. Objectives included describing the need for programs, studying evolution within the discipline, discussing faculty recommendations for future development, and examining…

The Agricultural Act of 2014 (Farm Bill) is a critical part of the economic safety net for U.S. crop and dairy producers through 2018. Passage of the Farm Bill marked a change in philosophy regarding producer and landowner decisions about program choices. The shift was away from nearly 20 years of fixed annual payments based on historical…

This resource was prepared in response to a request from a Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) State for information about the Transformation Zones that 10 RTT-ELC States had included as key projects in their RTT-ELC plans. This information will be helpful to other States as they consider how to continue to increase the quality of…

This report includes summaries of Minnesota student demographics, child count, enrollment counts, graduation rates, and assessment results for the 2015-16 and 2016-17 school years. The trend data reflects the achievements, milestones, and areas of concern for students with the primary disability classification of blind or visually impaired (BVI)…

The third edition of the National Technical Assistance Center for the Education of Neglected or Delinquent Children and Youth's (NDTAC's) "Transition Toolkit" provides updated information on existing policies, practices, strategies, and resources for transition that build on field experience and research. The "Toolkit" offers…

This biennial report contains information about the efforts and initiatives of education-based agencies, departments, and individuals in Minnesota who served students who were deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH) during the 2015-16 and 2016-17 school years. The report also summarizes the results for students who took the Minnesota Comprehensive…

Research highlights the importance of individualized approaches and coaching to ongoing professional learning (Darling-Hammond, Wei, Andree, Richardson, & Orphanos, 2009). The purpose of this article is to describe an initiative that set out to help all students become proficient readers by 3rd grade. It demonstrates how coaching can support…

Raising evaluation capacity is not an easy task unless the evaluation competence of Extension professionals in each program area is identified. The study reported here identified whether level of knowledge and skills and needs for further training in program evaluation vary for Extension educators based on their program area. A total of 752…

Comprehensive Arts Planning Program (CAPP) grants were awarded to 30 school districts in Minnesota to improve their arts education programs. Each district formed a community-based team of eight persons. Each team was then responsible for planning developing, and promoting comprehensive arts education within the district. Following a brief…

It has been recognized for many years that the educational levels of adult American Indians are low (2/3 have not advanced beyond elementary school) and the illiteracy rates are high (1/4 are functionally illiterate). Traditional adult programs have not met the needs of adult Indians who are uncomfortable in "white" classes and who will…

We explain in this article the need for board training in rural America irrespective of industry or government sector. We discuss how an assessment of training needs has led to the launch of a new project called the National Board Basics Curriculum (NBBC) project. In this project, we have identified four key core competencies that every board…

The University of Minnesota's Special Education Administration Training Program (SEATP) is a competency-based education program, developed from a systems orientation model, and used for continuing education of professional administrators. The report presents an overview of the SEATP program under the following topical areas: (1) background…

This document proposes an Area Vocational-Technical Institute (AVTI) based model for service delivery to dislocated workers in Minnesota. The need for such a model arises from the consistent duplication of problem-solving measures and service delivery statewide in attempting to solve the problems of various groups of dislocated workers. The model…