Throughout the nation, K-12 schools and districts face shortages of educators across all content areas, and the field of agricultural education is no different. There are approximately 11,000 middle and high school agricultural teachers throughout the country, according to the National Association of Agricultural Educators.

In 2009, the association launched the National Teach Ag Campaign to entice and retain agricultural educators in schools. However, Project Director Ellen Thompson said that gaps in agricultural teacher shortages were closing, and those gaps were due to the increasing popularity and availability of new, revived or expanded programs in schools.

“We’re seeing a growth in agricultural education. They’re adding programs, and that’s adding a lot of additional demand stress to the low supply,” she said about schools and districts. “(There’s) historically low rates of enrollment programs in education degree programs right now, but we’re seeing an increase in people going into agricultural education degrees.”

As the programs have expanded, agriculture teachers and the Teach Ag Campaign have worked to institute and sustain professional development courses, with the Campaign working on with state legislatures to advocate for more funding and focus on the approach. Thompson said the campaign began the State Teach Ag Results (STAR) program several years ago, encouraging state government to work with agricultural ed leaders within their states to develop teacher retention plans.

The program now consists of 30 states, with strategies customized by each state’s group. These have included scholarships for future agricultural educators, teacher mentor programs, parent engagements, and the means to fund and support professional development programs. The campaign also hosts a National Teach Ag Day each year, and selects 17 agricultural education majors each year to attend the Future Agriscience Teacher (FAST) symposium as a part of the day. The program involves three days of professional development, and Thompson said the success of the campaign’s approach could extend to other disciplines.

“We’ve been really successful in what we’ve been able to do and we hope it helps other content areas,” Thompson said.

Professional development has helped educators expand their skillsets in new technology and teaching processes, according to Wes Crawford, an agricultural education teacher at Sutherlin High School in Sutherlin, OR. The agriculture program has about 120 students enrolled, Crawford said, noting that in recent years agriculture education had benefited from renewed interest from school administrators and state government, part of a broader emphasis on career and technical education.

As many agricultural programs in schools are single-teacher, Crawford said much of the professional development comes from outside sources, such as the National Association of Agricultural Educators or teachers like himself; when he spoke to Education Dive, Crawford was preparing to host more than 30 shop teachers from Oregon and Washington for a week-long professional development course.

“The most valuable are the ones that are sustained, that were part of a bigger whole, whether through state level conferences, and those that are happening at the regional level, because what we’re doing is always changing,” he said. “If there wasn’t these teacher organizations doing it, they just wouldn’t be there.”

Crawford and Matthew Eddy, an agricultural teacher at Southeast Polk High School in Pleasant Hill, IA, agreed that they had received strong support from administrators at their school and at the district level, and school leaders were generally open to introducing or expanding agricultural education programs. Eddy said that it was part of a “renaissance in the public forum” for consumers who want to know more about their food.

The interest in agriculture, as well as increased demands from industry, led to schools endeavoring to bulk up their programs (Crawford mentioned several schools in his immediate area had started new programs or revived agricultural programs that had long been dormant). Additionally, as a field that can offer tangible evidence that students are learning career-applicable skills, such programs can be a persuasive sell.

“I see it starting to become more of a priority, and in terms of budgeting, it’s all about priorities. I think that’s one of the things that agricultural programs show over the years is that we create a lot of value,” Eddy said, noting that agricultural education in schools was one of the few content areas that could benefit a town’s economy while maintaining the academic benefits. Many students in his program, for example, bought feed for animals at the local market.

“So when schools are thinking whether they should add a lot of agricultural education programs, we can show that we’re an economic benefit to the area,” he said. “We’re creating entrepreneurs and turning them loose into the local economy. I know programs in rural America, where one in five business owners are former students. You want students to stay in these rural areas, and they need a reason to stay. If they create their own jobs, that’s even better.”

Crawford said administrators were better-prepared to support agricultural education programs when they sought to understand what made those programs unique to other content areas. Depending on the perspective, Crawford said an agricultural education program could seem academic, or look like a form of vocational or work experience curriculum. It was all of these things, Crawford said, and as administrators worked with budgeting, from expending on substitute teachers or approving trip requests, it helped to understand the particularities of what is involved in an ag ed program.

“To say, ‘oh, it’s another shop class’ is wrong. To say it’s another science class is wrong. There’s so many things going on there,” he said. “But that’s what we want career and technical education to be.”

Thompson said the Teach Ag campaign had worked to collect data on teacher retention in agricultural education, and said she was pleasantly surprised when she learned that during the past few years, agricultural ed had seen a 4 to 6% loss rate among educators, lower than the national average, suggesting agricultural teachers are remaining in the classroom. She did note that 65% of agricultural education students were white females. Thompson said the campaign was working to create inclusive programs to promote gender and ethnic diversity that could filter into the state programs.

Crawford, however, noted that challenges did remain ahead. The Campaign had helped states to develop plans on how to replace retiring teachers, and the teacher shortage gap in Iowa had leveled at this year. However, the years ahead would require a continuing effort on the part of state governments, advocacy groups, teachers and administrators to keep teachers in the classroom and attract new, qualified ones.

“We have a lot of teachers with 33 to 35 years of experience, and are five years from retirement, so that’s going to leave a big hole,” Eddy said. “So we’ve got to figure out how to close that.”