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The place of student activities within the public educational system of this country remains an issue. Some proponents of educational reform argue that nonclassroom activities compete with academic learning for the student's time and attention. That argument implicitly assumes a causal relationship between youth activities and academic achievement. Using the High School and Beyond sophomore cohort data set, I examined that implied causal relationship between level of student participation in extracurricular/cocurricular activities and academic achievement. The model examined accounts for the effects of gender, family background, academic ability, and other competing time-use habits. The fmdings suggest that academic achievement is enhanced by student participation and raise questions about the rationale behind rules excluding academically marginal students from participation in extracurricular and cocurricular activities.As the star flanker back on his high school football team, Johnny was well known throughout the whole county, but he failed one class last year and made C -grades in two others. Under his school system's "2.0 Rule," he is ineligible to participate in sports this year. Additionally, under that same policy, Johnny is also ineligible to be a member of the cocurricular student association (Vocational Industrial Clubs of America, VICA) for the auto mechanics class that he is taking. The policy was implemented by the local school board to help improve the "climate of academic excellence" in the school.

The researchers surveyed department heads of purposefully selected agricultural teacher education programs to determine the curricular structure of agricultural teacher education in the United States. Nominations ofprograms to examine were sought from members of the profession. Graduation checklists and course syllabi for all professional agricultural education courses were analyzed. The authors concluded that programs vary greatly across the country. Courses on teaching methods and program and curriculum planning are generally available. Separate courses on serving as FFA advisors or in managing Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) programs are offered in only a few of the selected institutions. FFA was listed as a topic in 9 of the 10 institutions. SAE, or an equivalent topic was listed in all of the institutions studied. The authors offer a potential composite structure based on the programs studied. Vocational education was later tasked to help address the problems of American Education. The Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) Report (United States Department of Labor, 1991) identified basic competencies needed by Americans to meet the needs of the internationally competitive workforce of the future. notice that change was needed. The National Agricultural education also was put on Academy of Science Committee on Agricultural Education in the Secondary Schools report, Understanding Agriculture: New Directions for Education (1988) examined agricultural education in this country, found it lacking, and recommended fundamental changes both in public school programs and in agricultural teacher education.