This week we wrap up our series of Footnotes about agricultural education in Massachusetts. In this Footnote there are several links to schools and videos. Instead of spending a lot of time on words, these links and videos are well worth checking out.
Our guest columnist is Kim LaFlueur, the state FFA advisor in Massachusetts. Kim has been in this position since 2000. She is a graduate of Bristol County Agricultural High School. She has a BS degree from UMASS Amherst in Marine Fisheries and served as State Vice President and State President for MA FFA. Her husband and oldest son are also Bristol Aggie grads. Take it away Kim.
Agricultural Education in Massachusetts
Massachusetts’s innovations in agricultural education began well before our National FFA charter in 1931. The state’s first agricultural school, Smith, opened its doors in 1908. Shortly thereafter, Bristol, Essex, and Norfolk followed. More than 100 years later, all four are still in operation today. Over time, program offerings have changed to meet the current needs of industry. What has not changed, though, is the commitment to providing rigorous academic and agricultural education to prepare students for a variety of careers.
The North Bennet Street School was founded in 1881 in Boston. It is considered by most to be the first trade school in the United States. From The Pioneer Institute White Paper Vocational-Technical Education in Massachusetts, No. 42, October 2008:
“In Massachusetts, Vocational Technical Education (VTE), also known as Career and Technical Education (CTE), is over a century old. The educational reform movement begun in the late 1800s was crystallized when Massachusetts Governor William L. Douglas, a shoe manufacturer from Brockton, approved a legislative resolution on May 24, 1905, establishing a commission to examine the nature and the need for industrial education and to make recommendations on its implementation. The Massachusetts Commission on Industrial and Technical Education submitted its report in April 1906 and filed a Senate Bill that same year, An Act to Provide Further for Industrial Education. Enacted in June 1906 and amended in 1911 and 1921, this law established Massachusetts as the first state to provide publicly funded industrial education, making it ‘the Grandfather of Vocational Education.’ In 1908, the Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School in Northampton was the first Vocational Technical school to open, followed a month later by New Bedford Independent Industrial School.”
In 1962 the current regional vocational technical school system was established. This created 26 regional schools across the state, along with the three original all-agricultural schools. The program offerings at Smith expanded beyond agriculture. In addition to the regional schools, several of the larger municipalities have their own vocational school for students within their district. There is also a variety of certified vocational programs at local comprehensive high schools. Two of those have FFA chapters.
The model of career and agricultural education programs in Massachusetts is unique. All programs have an equal emphasis on academic and vocational time. Half of a student’s time is spent in their vocational area, or “major”. Some programs have a week on, week off model, where students are in academics for one week, followed by vocational classes for the full week the next. Others split the day nearly equally between academics and “major” time. As a result, students in Massachusetts programs have an exceptionally high number of hours of agricultural instruction.
All students in Massachusetts have access to a vocational program, whether that is in their district or part of a regional one. Additionally, all students have access to an agricultural education program should their local or regional vocational school not offer one. The sending towns are required to pay tuition and transportation fees for any student who is accepted into one of these programs. Due to extreme popularity across the programs, the vast majority of the schools have significant waiting lists for limited seats.
To go along with the unique structure of our programs are the requirements to become a credentialed agricultural education instructor. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education licenses all teachers in Massachusetts. First, each must meet specific educational degree requirements, followed by three to five years of work experience in the area where the teacher is to be certified. They must also pass the standard teacher certification exams, as well as pass written and performance tests. Without specific technical courses on their transcript, a graduate with a degree in Agricultural Education is not able to be certified in Massachusetts.
AG SCHOOLS TODAY
Bristol County Agricultural High School serves 20 communities in the county, as well as 16 communities in neighboring counties. Twenty agriculture teachers provide instruction to nearly 650 students in Agricultural Mechanics, Animal Science, Arboriculture, Environmental Conservation, Floriculture, and Landscape Design and Contracting.
Figure 1. An aerial view of Bristol County Agricultural High School.
One of the unique features of Bristol is that they farm 200 acres and also have a Natural History Museum on campus. The Dairy barn is a net-zero operation and uses robotic milking technology. Admission to the school is competitive. Students apply for and are interviewed to be part of the 640 student body at Bristol Aggie.
The school’s website can be found at https://www.bristolaggie.org/. There is 17 minute video about the school on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuMdMPeVnUk). It is well worth watching. The National FFA has even featured the school on their website (https://www.ffa.org/the-feed/hands-on-education-bristol-aggie/).
Essex Agricultural High School merged with North Shore Technical High School in 2014 to become Essex North Shore Agricultural and Technical High School. Nearly 600 students are enrolled in the agricultural cluster from 17 in-district towns, plus 38 surrounding communities. Twenty-one agriculture teachers provide instruction in Companion Animals, Equine Science, Veterinary Science, Arboriculture, Landscaping & Turf Management, Natural & Environmental Science, and Sustainable Horticulture. The school is located on 110 acres.
Figure 2. An aerial view of Essex North Shore Agricultural and Technical High School.
The website for the school is https://essexnorthshore.org/. A seven minute video about the school is on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G84QoIAax1I).
Norfolk County Agricultural High School enrolls over 600 students from the 28 towns in the county, plus more than 40 out-of-county towns. They employ 27 agriculture teachers who offer instruction in Agricultural and Diesel Mechanics, Canine Science. Equine Science, Farm and Livestock Management, Marine Science, Research Animal Technology, Veterinary Science, Environmental Science, Urban Forestry, Landscape Management, and Horticulture.
Figure 3. An aerial view of Norfolk County Agricultural High School.
The website for Norfolk is https://www.norfolkaggie.org/. To learn more about the school you might want to watch this 8 minute YouTube video (https://youtu.be/uN5e4FDFDjo).
Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School employs six agriculture teachers who provide instruction in Agricultural Mechanics, Animal Science, and Horticulture/Forestry. Current enrollment is nearly 150 students from 55 – 65 communities in any given year. Smith’s programs have expanded beyond agriculture and now include the traditional career and technical education areas.
The school web site is https://www.smithtec.org/ and there is a 14 minute video on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK3u14tL2oc)
Figure 4. An aerial view of Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School.
The remaining agriculture programs in Massachusetts are part of the larger regional vocational schools or comprehensive high schools. While historically these focused on horticulture, there has been a recent surge of programs in veterinary science, as well as environmental science. As the schools built in the 1960s and 1970s reach the end of their useful life, our students are now benefiting from newly constructed facilities with expanded capacity, cutting-edge equipment, and enhanced instruction.
Massachusetts is not only the birthplace of the SAE, but also a leader in equal access for all students wishing to pursue an agricultural education. We are deeply proud of our place in history to allow female members from our earliest days. Our programs will continue to evolve to meet the needs of our local communities and the agriculture industry.
Concluding Remarks
Thank you, Kim. Even though Massachusetts is a small state geographically they have some BIG agricultural education programs. If you teach a lesson about agricultural education, you could have your students watch the videos in this lesson and then have them identify which school they would like to attend and give reasons for their decision.
Next week we will travel to Michigan to learn about agricultural education in the Wolverine state.