Since 2014, the present research team has approached the Supply and Demand Study as a multi-institutional, collaborative project; this has provided for the collection of accurate, annual supply-and-demand data relevant to school-based agricultural education. From 2014-2020, Drs. Foster, Lawver, and Smith leveraged diverse expertise, provided necessary resources, and offered long- term commitment to this project. In 2020, the team responded to an RFP for continuation of the project; their selection resulted in an extension through 2026. Seeking to expand access and timeliness of data dissemination for the good of the profession, in 2022 Dr. Mike Spiess was invited to join the project team.
Daniel Foster is an Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology and Education at Pennsylvania State University serving as an Agricultural Teacher Educator. Daniel is also the co-founder of the Global Teach Ag Network and actively engages in research on effective agricultural education in secondary and post-secondary settings, specifically teacher professional development, communities of practice and global learning in agricultural education.
Rebecca Lawver is a Professor and Department Head of the Applied Science, Technology & Education department at Utah State University. Rebecca provides leadership, instruction and advising in the ASTE graduate and undergraduate program. Her research focus includes the professional development of agricultural educators in secondary, post-secondary and non-formal education, specifically, needs assessment, recruitment and retention, agriculture safety, and effective teaching. Rebecca has been active in the professional work of the AAAE as past president, VP communication, secretary, and has served on several committees and working groups.
Amy Smith is an Associate Professor and Program Leader for Agricultural Education at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. Amy teaches a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses, and conducts research centered on teacher recruitment and retention in school-based agricultural education. Amy is committed to providing service and professional development to both pre-service and in-service school-based agricultural educators. She strives to address the pressing shortage of teachers and works to diversify the agricultural education profession by engaging new and diverse audiences in agriculture, food, and natural resource (AFNR) education. Additionally, she is the Co-Director for the Minnesota AFNR Teacher Induction Program.
Michael Spiess is Professor Emeritus of Agricultural Education and Agricultural Engineering Technology at California State University, Chico. Mike has studied California teacher demographics and trends for over 20 years. He designed and managed the original online data collection system used collect secondary agricultural program data for California. He has served as Program Coordinator (chair) and Associate Dean of the College of Agriculture. Mike has served in the AAAE Western Region chairs and as the VP of Communications. He currently chairs the AAAE Audit and Finance committee.
Data is collected in Qualtrics and exported to Excel. Data is screened for quality then imported to an MS-Access database. The online application is written in ASP.NET. To keep maintenance to a minimum the application is primarily driven by the database. All maps, charts, and queries are written in SQL contained and described in the database. Charts and Maps are rendered using Google Charts driven by SQL queries from the database. New data, charts, maps, and queries are maintained using the Access desktop application then the database is simply uploaded to the web site to update the online application.
Due to the nature of the data collection not every state or institution reports every year and states may not report completed data. Each data record contains validity flags for each portion of the data. These flags are used to filter data in the SQL queries. For a simple query such as total teachers only a single flag may be used. For queries requiring calculation such as the "demand metric" flags for each component will be used. This will result in a differing number of records being returned since a state may report some but not all data. Note that "all data" queries are not filtered.
Questions about the site can be addressed to Michael Spiess (California State University, Chico). Click here to report a data error.
