SD Agricultural Education and FFA History

Agricultural Projects, Degrees and Proficiency Awards

By Clark W. Hanson
Professor Emeritus, Agricultural Education, SDSU

The Smith –Hughes of Act of 1917 required that students enrolled in high school classes have “supervised farm practice.” Rufus W. Stimson developed the concept while he was President of the Connecticut Agricultural College. During the early days of the 20th Century, the accepted method of teaching agriculture was classroom lecture and manual work on the school farm. Stimson was opposed to this method of teaching, as he believed “that too many students stood around watching other students work and that labor on somebody else’s farm was not ideal.” Stimson formulated a new approach to teaching, “… the students would learn agriculture at the school but would apply what they had learned on their home farms through the use of home projects.”

The concept of Vocational Agriculture farm projects appears to have been in existence before the passage of the Smith-Lever Act (formation of the Cooperative Extension Service and 4-H) and Smith-Hughes Act (formation of Vocational Agriculture). This philosophy would be similar to the approach developed by the Boys’ Clubs of the various livestock species and Boys’ Corn Clubs.
 
By 1928, secondary Vocational Agriculture Curriculum consisted of three components: classroom and laboratory within the school building and to some extent beyond the school better known as field trips, supervised farm projects and the Future Farmers of America (FFA). In the first 10 years since the establishment of the South Dakota FFA   140 boys had been granted the State Farmer Degree and nine members had applied for and received the American Farmer Degree.

During 1980’s, the program currently identified as secondary Agricultural Education was based on the three original components now labeled as; classroom and laboratories, (label still the same but the description totally different), Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAE) and the FFA.

In 2011, the National Council for Agricultural Education organized a national summit resulting in a committee to propose recommendations for expanding the definition of SAE. The committee recommended the following SAE categories:

• Placement SAE
  
• Entrepreneurship (Ownership) SAE
  
• Research (Experimental, Analysis, Invention) SAE
  
• School-Based Enterprise SAE
  
• Service Learning SAE

The FFA organization currently provides for five levels of membership:

Discovery Degree – presented to junior high school upon completion of a local middle school agriculture class.

• Greenhand Degree – presented to students while enrolled in their first High School Agricultural Education class,
  
• Chapter Degree- awarded by the local FFA chapter when the member meets a set of prescribed standards.
  
• State Degree – Awarded by the various State Associations upon meeting established standards.
• American Degree - The highest level status of achievement for FFA member awarded by the National FFA organization.

The American Star Farmer program was the first of four Star programs to be developed, Agribusiness was the second Star program established.  American Star in Agricultural Placement and American Star in Agriscience were developed later.
           
Recent South Dakota success include 2016 Star Agribusiness recipient Shane Mueller, from the Garretson Chapter and Star Agriscience, recipient Elizabeth Renner, of the West Central FFA. Adam Eichacker, representing the McCook Central FFA Chapter, is one of the finalists for 2018 Star American Farmer.

The Proficiency Awards program is unique in that individual students can locate an area in which they can experience personal growth and development leading to eventual employment. The only limitation for success being one’s own goals and willingness to work. It also encourages specialization in one focused area leading to a career in agriculture. The Agricultural Education profession has placed a great deal of emphasis on this area of the FFA. The expansion of the total scope of Proficiency Awards areas provides FFA members with a multitude of excellent resources for work experience.

During the mid 1970’s, the Morgan Horse Association approached the National FFA Foundation with the idea for a Horse Production Proficiency Award. Your author was invited to join a committee charged with the responsibility of producing a draft version. The format was based on the combined characteristics of the Beef, Swine, Sheep, and Dairy Proficiency awards programs.

In 1985, the U.S. Secretaries of Agriculture and Education requested the National Research Council to establish an Agricultural Education Committee in Secondary Schools to study and make recommendations for changes. The study published their findings in a report entitled “Understanding Agriculture – New Directions for Education”
containing conclusions and recommendations

The report stated that relevance and scope of the Vocational Agricultural education curriculum, SOE, and the FFA must be broadened. It appears to the author that expanding the scope of the Proficiency Award program was a partial response to this recommendation. In 1989, there were twenty-nine Proficiency Award areas. Today, there are forty-seven.

The Council further defines SAE as initiated and carried forth by the student enrolled in an Agricultural Education class, supervised by the agricultural instructor, involves work treated as learning experiences with measurable outcomes.

The criteria for judging Proficiency Awards applications is as follows:

• Skills and competencies acquired relate to an agricultural career field.                  
• Financial achievements, including growth in scope.         
  
• Member involvement in FFA activities.
  
• Record of student accomplishments.
  
• Communication skills.

The South Dakota Agricultural Education teaching professionals should possess a real sense of accomplishments and pride with respect to success experienced with the Proficiency Award Program. South Dakota’s level of success in the National FFA SAE Proficiency Awards program is indicated below:

• 1996 – 6 Finalists, 1 Winner
  
• 1998 – 8 Finalists, 1 Winner
  
• 2000- 11 Finalists, 1 Winner
  
• 2002 – 8 Finalists
  
• 2003 – 8 Finalists. 1 Winner
  
• 2005 – 8 Finalists, 2 Winners
  
• 2006 – 6 Finalists, 1 Winner
  
• 2007 –13 Finalists, 1 Winner
  
• 2008 –11 Finalists, 2 Winners
  
• 2011 –12 Finalists, 1 Winner
  
• 2016  - 8 Finalists, 1 Winner

The above data reports results of eleven years of South Dakota’s participation in the National FFA Proficiency Award. Based on the number of states involved the level of South Dakota ‘s Finalist and Winners looks good. However, when one takes into account the South Dakota FFA membership compared to the total FFA membership nation wide South Dakota FFA member’s record of accomplishments is phenomenal.

Years ago when there were a half dozen Proficiency Award areas, the judging was accomplished by a handful of staff on the South Dakota State University campus. Today, with the increased level of participation and expansion of award areas, a full day is set-aside for a crew of fifty individuals to assemble and evaluate the SAE’s, which have been forwarded for state competition.

Society needs to realize that for every member on stage to receive a Proficiency Award there is a cadre of students enrolled in Agricultural Education classes who have benefitted from participating in the Proficiency Awards program.