To identify the characteristics of students in the four technical agriculture programs in Ohio and to determine the association between selected student characteristics, success in the program, and later success in the world of work, data were collected from the cumulative records of 246 students, a student survey of current enrollment, 70 graduates of agricultural technology programs, 70 employers of agricultural technology graduates, and 33 dropouts of agricultural technology programs. Some major conclusions were: (1) Characteristics of students varied among the technical agriculture programs, (2) Parents, technical school representatives, and vocational agriculture teachers influenced students to enroll, (3) The dropout rate was associated with background, experience and academic ability, (4) Most graduates entered positions for which they were prepared, (5) Employers rated graduates as satisfactory employees and favored those with a farm background and agricultural experiences, and (6) Students and graduates expressed the opinion that supervised occupational experience and a student leadership organization would be worthwhile additions to technical agriculture programs. This Ph.D. thesis was submitted to Ohio State University. (DM)