A Case Study: Agricultural literacy proficiency in an Iowa elementary school

Abstract

Planning theories suggest a stepwise structure for organizing programs; evaluate current status with a needs assessment, identify strengths, weaknesses or gaps, use tools such as a logic model to plan, then implement and evaluate programming (Kettner et al., 2017). The National Agriculture in the Classroom organization and its state affiliates have the responsibility of providing agricultural education content to school-aged children and teachers to increase agricultural literacy (NAITC, n.d.). The Longhurst Murray Agricultural Literacy Instrument (LMALI) is a modern, valid tool to assess proficiency level of students participating in such programming (Longhurst, et al., 2020). Tri-Center Elementary in Iowa administered the LMALI to kindergarten through fifth grade students in March 2021. The findings from this case study suggest recommendations to state and national program planners to improve effectiveness of agricultural literacy outreach programs.