PREDICTING SCORES OF BEGINNING AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION TEACHERS ON THE PRAXIS II EXAMINATION

This descriptive-correlational study predicted performance of beginning agricultural education teachers on principles of learning and teaching (PLT) and Agriculture content (AgC) tests of the PRAXIS II examination using demographic and academic variables. Performance on the PRAXIS II was used for issuing initial teaching licenses to the agricultural education teachers. The study used existing records from the Department Agricultural Education at Iowa State University. Professional education GPA explained significant variability in PLT scores. Males scored higher than females on the AgC test. Agriculture GPA did not explain significant variability in AgC scores. Additional research should be conducted to determine whether similar results would be obtained with other licensure areas. Further research should explore the relationship between gender and performance on the AgC test of the PRAXIS II examination.