A meting of the Minds

Last night I was able to attend the Eastern Region PAAE (Pennsylvania Association of Agricultural Educators) meeting with my cooperating teacher and a group of students who were attending the state officer candidacy school.

I call this a meeting of the minds, as this is where all of the PAAE members around the state are invited to hear what issues are facing both the state and the region.

On the agenda for last nights meeting included committee reports as well as new business which included selecting two new officers, determining if the region thought that PAAE should fund 5 thousand dollars for the SAE specialist and deciding if our region though that we should support the upkeep of a new website.

As we went through the agenda a few items stuck out to me, such as the topic of advocacy witch came up several times. Advocacy is such an important topic at the moment, not only to advocate for our programs but for agricultural education programs in general. There have been some very bold statements thrown throughout Pennsylvania government, as bold as saying " agriculture needs to be in every high school". Agriculture education is moving in a positive direction with the legislative actions and support that is occurring and it is essential that we are advocating both at the local, state, and national levels.

The other hot button issue that we discussed was the new mandates that are making student certifications a pin pointed area during program evaluations. They want to see that at least 50 percent of your students are coming out of the agricultural programs with relevant certifications, with relevant being the key word. It was identified that there are several aspects of this new mandate that are quite unclear, such as how does a certification make it on the list of counted certifications and how do we get these certifications into the CATS system?

Another point that was brought fourth was that many times schools are giving these certification exams and their students are attaining them, but they are not being counted in the reporting systems.

These points are major concerns as we think about keeping programs approved and building new programs.

Overall as I reflect on the meeting myself and with my cooperating teacher it was a very efficient and well run meeting that resulted in some great discussion and decisions. In addition, I continue to see and appreciate the value of being apart of our professional organizations.