After a positive vote from the members of the Georgia Professional Standards Commission at their recent meeting, the Agricultural Education Teacher Preparation program at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College is fully accredited, and ABAC is ready to help to fill the void of agricultural education teachers in the state.

“Having our Agricultural Education program approved by the Georgia Professional Standards Commission as an Educator Preparation Provider and Educator Preparation Program is a major accomplishment for ABAC,” Dr. Mark Kistler, Dean of the ABAC School of Agriculture and Natural Resources, said.  “Our students can now be certified to teach agricultural education at the middle and high school level in Georgia.”

Dr. Marcus Johnson, Education Department Head at ABAC, said that ABAC received approval from the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia to offer the Agricultural Education bachelor’s degree in 2016.  Since that time, ABAC faculty members and administrators have been working to ensure that the College is able to recommend candidates for teacher certification upon their completion of the Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Education degree program.

“This vote makes it official that ABAC can submit teachers for candidacy to the Professional Standards Commission,” Johnson said.  “Students who complete the rigorous and content-heavy ABAC Agricultural Education program and pass licensure exams will be certified to teach Agricultural Education in the State of Georgia.  Because of ABAC’s strong reputation among agricultural educators, we expect that the demand for our students will be very high.”

ABAC Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs Darby Sewell expects 27 ABAC students to be ready for student teaching duties in January of 2019.  She said approximately 140 students are enrolled in the degree program.

“We had to complete quite a few reports before we had a very successful site visit back in April,” Sewell said.  “With all that behind us, I expect that we will award our first bachelor’s degrees in Agricultural Education at the May 2019 commencement ceremony.”

Kistler said the Georgia Professional Standards Commission also approved a certification only option that will allow students who complete bachelor’s degrees in other areas to return to ABAC for two semesters to obtain certification in Agricultural Education.

“This opens an additional career opportunity for our students in the School of Agriculture and Natural Resources,” Kistler said.  “This will help to meet the demand for Agricultural Education teachers not only in Georgia but across the nation.  Our faculty and staff have worked very hard over the past several years to make this happen.”

ABAC now offers 13 bachelor’s degree programs after offering only associate degrees for the first 75 years of its existence.  Summer term classes begin at ABAC on May 29.  Fall semester classes begin Aug. 15.