Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

Award Date

1955

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department / School

Education

Abstract

Pupils come to Brookings high school from many different rural schools in the community. These rural pupils must necessarily compete with pupils graduated from the elementary city school. As vocational agriculture instructor at Brookings high school, the writer is interested in the scholastic achievement of rural boys enrolled in the high school. Is the farm boy successfully adjusting himself to this new educational environment and is he working up to his mental capacity? How do vocational agriculture pupils compare in achievement to pupils not enrolled in agriculture? When rural pupils enter high school, they are met with definite impediments. The classes are larger and greater competition among pupils in class work is experienced. The average size of class in the rural school in Brookings County is less than two pupils, while the average size of the school enrollment is twelve pupils. In Brookings high school the class enrollment will average one hundred pupils. Each class is divided into sections of approximately twenty-five pupils. The lack of kindergarten training reduces the rural pupil’s formal education period by approximately one-half year. This gives the rural pupil a retarded approach to his elementary training, since many preliminary adaptations are made by the beginning pupil during the kindergarten year. The general education of the rural pupil is not enriched to any great extent with additional experiences of band, chorus, industrial arts, physical education, speech and home making. Also, outside activities such as scouting, summer recreation, Red Cross swimming programs and Junior league baseball contribute to a broader educational background for the city boy. All eighth grade graduates must complete the prescribed course of study. Though their education is basically the same, do these additional experiences raise the coefficient of correlation between ability and achievement of the town boys in high school? This would, of course, be difficult to measure. However, since extra class activities are being encouraged more than before, it is believed that a desirable carry-over exists in the total achievement of pupils. The Brookings Independent School District has an educational program extending from kindergarten through twelfth grade. The school is organized on a K-6-2-4 basis, that is, a kindergarten, and elementary school of six grades, the seventh and eighth grades organized as a junior high school, and a senior high school of four grades. The elementary program includes art, music, and physical education classes. The supervised music program begins with kindergarten and physical education is taught to all pupils above the third grade. The junior high school pupils have their general education continued with additional experiences in band, chorus, industrial arts and homemaking. The senior high school program continues the general education by means of required courses and also provides a variety of elective subjects for the students. The vocational training for boys is limited to agriculture and for girls, to home making and secretarial training. The Bureau of Field Studies and Surveys, University of Minnesota, rates the educational program in the Brookings schools as very good, although this program is hampered some by the lack of class room space. Students from Brookings high school rank high scholastically when compared with students from many mid-west high schools. This is indicated by the results of the Iowa Tests of Educational Development. This test is administered to every student at Brookings high school each year. In this research problem the writer is attempting to determine the relationship of the achievement of vocational agriculture students to the achievement of non-agriculture students in relation to their mental ability. The writer is the teacher of vocational agriculture at Brookings high school. Therefore, it is a matter of personal interest and convenience to use students from this school for the study.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

High schools -- South Dakota -- Brookings

Description

Includes bibliographic references

Format

application/pdf

Number of Pages

31

Publisher

South Dakota State University

Rights

No Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Only
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-NC/1.0/

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