Throughout the construction of the United States, agriculture and education have been closely intertwined—until recent years. In 1981, agricultural professionals, educators and policy makers noted the decline in standard agricultural curriculum and a need was established for accurate, realistic and representative materials of American agriculture for the classroom. This issue of agricultural literacy has become an imminent concern in today’s agricultural industry. With these rising concerns of agricultural literacy and the future of agriculture as a whole, this study was aimed at measuring and identifying elementary school educators’ perceptions of the current agricultural literature that is available in their classrooms. In order to assess the knowledge and perceptions of the agricultural-related literature in classrooms, a study of kindergarten through fourth grade teachers was performed. This study utilized a descriptive summated scale instrument. This study focused on elementary school teachers’ perceptions of the available agricultural related literature in their classrooms. This study determined the educators’ perceived accuracy of the literature as well as their perceived perceptions of the elementary school students’ knowledge of modern day agriculture. The accuracies and inaccuracies of the literature, how the literature affects the students’ knowledge of agriculture, and if the teachers perceive a need for agricultural literature in their classrooms were also identified through this descriptive survey. This paper explores these perceptions of agricultural-related literature as well as student knowledge of agriculture and makes recommendations for Agriculture in the Classroom programming.

The significance of agriculture to future generations is unparalleled. The United Nations projects the global population to swell to 9.75 billion people by 2050, and to proliferate to 11.2 billion by 2100. The non-agricultural population has little to no understanding or comprehension of the complexities of sustaining a viable agricultural system. Agricultural literacy is an area often unseen and rarely discussed outside specific agricultural disciplines. Society does not view agriculture as being important, yet it is important that society be properly educated on issues in order to reach well-informed decisions and render prudent choices that impact the world around them. Illinois ranks fourth in the nation for agricultural productivity, yet the agricultural literacy of its elementary students is unknown. The purpose of this study was to assess the agricultural knowledge of selected Illinois classrooms of public elementary school students in kindergarten through fifth grades that employ Agriculture in the Classroom (AITC) methods and materials. A quasi-experimental nonequivalent control group design, using a pretest and a posttest, was utilized to study. A Solomon Four-Group design analysis was used to determine if pretest sensitization, or test reactivity effect, existed in this study. The study found that AITC treatment and control group students possessed some agricultural knowledge regarding the five thematic areas of the Food and Fiber Systems Literacy (FSSL) Framework. The kindergarten through first grade post mean scores by treatment and theme indicated the treatment group answered 77.89 percent of the questions correctly and the control group answered 72.55 percent correctly. The treatment and control groups were most knowledgeable about Theme 5 (Food, Nutrition and Health) followed by Theme 4 (Business and Economics), with the treatment group being more knowledgeable about Theme 1 (Understanding Food and Fiber Systems), while the control group was more knowledgeable about Theme 3 (Science, Technology and Environment). The treatment and control groups were least knowledgeable about Theme 2 (History, Geography and Culture). The second through third grade post mean scores by treatment and theme indicated the treatment group answered 75.05 percent of the questions correctly and the control group answered 74.07 percent correctly. The treatment group was most knowledgeable about Theme 3 (Science, Technology and Environment) followed by Theme 1 (Understanding Food and Fiber Systems) and Theme 5 (Food, Nutrition and Health). The control group was most knowledgeable about Theme 1 (Understanding Food and Fiber Systems) followed by Theme 3 (Science, Technology and Environment) and Theme 4 (Business and Economics). The treatment and control groups were least knowledgeable about Theme 2 (History, Geography and Culture). The fourth through fifth grade post mean scores by treatment and theme indicated the treatment group answered 66.73 percent of the questions correctly and the control group answered 52.91 percent correctly. The treatment group was most knowledgeable about Theme 2 (History, Geography and Culture) followed by Theme 3 (Science, Technology and Environment) and Theme 5 (Food, Nutrition and Health). The control groups were most knowledgeable about Theme 3 (Science, Technology and Environment) followed by Theme 1 (Understanding Food and Fiber Systems) and Theme 4 (Business and Economics). The treatment was least knowledgeable about Theme 4 (Business and Economics) and Theme 5 (Food, Nutrition and Health). The control group was least knowledgeable about Theme 2 (History, Geography and Culture) followed by Theme 5 (Food, Nutrition and Health).