Standards

William E. Dugger, Jr., Director
E. Allen Bame, Associate Director
Charles A. Pinder, Associate Director

The quality of American education has always been at issue among average citizens, educators, parents, and children. The United States Department of Education (US DOE), formerly the U. S. Office of Education (USOE), and several professional associations have long been devoted to developing and promoting quality standards for selected subject areas in our public schools. But during the past two decades, there have been major, national efforts by professional subject area associations to produce and advance standards in their respective curricula. These standards not only helped improve individual subject areas, but also provided a framework for standards projects in other subject areas. The first standards for technology education (then called industrial arts) were published in 1981.


Standards for Industrial Arts Programs

In 1978, the USOE responded to recommendations by professional associations in industrial arts and funded the Standards for Industrial Arts Programs Project at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. The three primary objectives of the project, as stated by the USOE, were:
 

• To develop a database on industrial arts (as defined in Title I, Part C, Section 195 (15) of the Education Amendments of 1976) and on industrial arts student organization activities as an integral part of the industrial arts instructional program.
  

 

• To develop a set of standards and related handbooks for ensuring quality industrial arts programs.
  

 

• To familiarize, publicize, and demonstrate the standards developed for industrial arts programs.
  

 

The standards for industrial arts were developed by over 400 industrial arts teachers, state and local supervisors, teacher educators, and consultants. The standards documents consisted of comparative statements designed to help determine the strengths and weaknesses of industrial arts programs at the secondary school level, though equally applicable at the elementary and post-secondary level. Of course, the use of the standards as an assessment tool by any school system was voluntary.


Standards for Technology Education Programs

School subject curricula have been, and always will be, in a constant process of change. It is impossible to write comprehensive, decisive standards that would answer all of the concerns of these diverse programs. The developers of the Standards for Industrial Arts Programs kept this in mind and designed the standards that would adapt to an evolving curriculum. Soon after these standards were developed, members of the field of industrial arts began to see a widespread shift, both pedagogical and philosophical, towards technology education. Four years later, in 1985, a new standards document was published to reflect the shift towards technology education.

Again spearheaded by faculty in the Technology Education Program at Virginia Tech, the Standards for Technology Education Programs Project published documents designed to extensively assess the quality of technology education programs. The publications were vehicles through which the quality of technology education programs could be greatly improved. Program improvement was the fundamental reason for creating standards.

The word "standards" was defined as "descriptive statements established by key professionals and used as a model to assess the degree to which a program meets qualitative and quantitative characteristics of excellence." The standards were characterized by the following:

 

• the standards were made up of 241 measurable statements written around 10 major topic headings;
  

 

• adopting and adhering to the standards was voluntary;
  

 

• they were primarily designed for technology education programs at the secondary school level; and
  

 

• the standards were useable for both vocationally a) approved, federally funded technology education programs and b) nonfederally funded technology education programs.
  

 

An outline of the standards follows.

Standard Topic 1: Philosophy

• 1.1 Development
  1.2 Utilization
  1.3 Review and Revise
  

Standard Topic 2: Instructional Program

• 2.1 Goals
  2.2 Objectives
  2.3 Content
  2.4 Scheduling
  

Standard Topic 3: Student Populations Served

• 3.1 Individual Differences
  3.2 Sex Equity
  

Standard Topic 4: Instructional Staff

• 4.1 Legal/Regulatory Qualifications
  4.2 Professional Responsibilities
  4.3 Personal Qualities
  

Standard Topic 5: Administration and Supervision

• 5.1 Staffing
  5.2 Planning and Organizing
  5.3 Budgeting
  5.4 Directing and Monitoring
  5.5 Data Collecting and Reporting
  5.6 Communicating
  

Standard Topic 6: Support Systems

• 6.1 Human Resources
  6.2 Physical Resources
  6.3 Financial Resources
  

Standard Topic 7: Instructional Strategies

• 7.1 Planning
  7.2 Implementing
  7.3 Reviewing and Revising
  

Standard Topic 8: Public Relations

• 8.1 Target Populations
  8.2 Media
  

Standard Topic 9: Safety and Health

• 9.1 Program
  9.2 Physical Environment
  9.3 Records
  

Standard Topic 10: Evaluation Process

• 10.1 Establishing a Data Collection and Analysis System
  10.2 Collecting and Analyzing Data
  10.3 Reporting
  10.4 Decision Making
  

Use of the standards impacted both the school and community through the improvement of technology education programs and helping produce a better technologically literate citizenry of the future.


Technology for All Americans Project

Today we are increasingly seeing that general technological literacy and capability are critical to survive in tomorrow's society as citizens, consumers, and workers. Realizing this need, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are funding a project to create national standards for technology education in grades K through 12. The effort is driven by the International Technology Education Association (ITEA) and is called "Technology for All Americans."

To learn more about this latest standards project, visit the Technology for All Americans web site.

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