Development and Validation of Written Exam Items for the Agricultural Hazardous Occupations Orders (AgHOs) Certification Training Program.

Research was conducted to develop and validate a pool of exam items that can be used to test the readiness of youth, ages 14-15 years, to be certified under the current federally mandated Agricultural Hazardous Occupations Orders (AgHOs). The AgHOs require training prior to employment in agricultural workplaces that the Secretary of Labor has determined are especially hazardous for youth within the prescribed age range. Under the current provisions of the AgHOs certification process, non-exempt youth seeking employment in agriculture are required to pass a written exam concentrating on safe work practices as partial satisfaction to receive certification of eligibility for employment to perform certain tasks. However, the regulations provide little guidance concerning the format of the exam, subject matter to be covered, degree of difficulty, or minimum passing score. As part of the USDA-sponsored Hazardous Occupations Safety Training in Agriculture (HOSTA) initiative, efforts have been made to develop consistent and evidence-based testing methods for disseminating the test protocols to instructors. The goal was to expand, enhance, and maintain the reliability of the exam item pool for the AgHOs certification process. Item development was based on the HOSTA-supported Gearing Up for Safety: Production Agriculture Safety Training for Youth curriculum. To ensure adequate item availability, the current item pool was expanded to include a minimum of two test items for each of the 157 cognitive-based core competencies developed as part of the Gearing Up curriculum design process. Administering 70-item exams that were generated from the item pool to 568 youth, ages 13-18 years, provided evidence of item validity. The result was a pool of 367 validated exam items.

Proposed performance standards for the Agricultural Hazardous Occupations Order certification training program.

The performance standards that accompany Gearing Up for Safety, the agricultural production safety training curriculum for youth, were designed to meet the certification testing requirements of the Agricultural Hazardous Occupations Order (AgHOs) certification training program. The AgHOs requires that certain youth who are older than 13 and younger than 16 years of age complete a prescribed training program before being eligible for employment on farms to perform certain tasks considered hazardous. These training resources will be available for implementation and can be accessed by contacting the second author. To our knowledge, up until this time, few, if any, standardized testing procedures or instruments have had the necessary psychometric evidence to support use of the resulting scores to assess the readiness of youth to meet the basic certification requirements contained in the AgHOs. This article describes the rationale, methods, and key findings from a standard-setting session held to establish minimum passing scores for a proposed testing process. The test will be used as a component of the Gearing Up for Safety certification process for youth workers seeking employment to perform job functions as specified under the AgHOs. Readers may be able to apply this standardized testing process, or similarly accepted processes, to other or future testing and certification projects involving agricultural safety and health.

Effectiveness of the Indiana 4-H tractor program at instilling safe tractor operating behaviors and attitudes in youth.

The purpose of this research was to determine what impact the Indiana 4-H Tractor Program has had on safer tractor operating behavior and attitudes of participants and to provide recommendations for program improvement. To assess the impact, 108 non 4-H youth who reported they operated a tractor regularly were compared with 104 4-H Tractor Program participants. A single skilled evaluator observed each individual in the two groups as she/he operated a tractor through a standard tractor-operating course. Information on recent tractor-related injury history and attitudes toward tractor safety was gathered using a written survey. Results showed that the program has had both a perceived and demonstrable positive influence; however, a need for improvements was also shown. Most significant of the findings was that participants in the 4-H Tractor Program were observed to operate tractors in a safer and more skillful manner. Even though the 4-H Tractor Program participants reported substantially more exposure time to tractor operation, they did not report a significantly different injury experience in comparison to the non-participants. Responses from the 4-H program participants, however, indicated a trend toward having more tractor-related close call incidents. There was no significant difference between the two groups in their attitudes toward tractor safety. Program recommendations developed as a result of the study primarily related to the need for updating instructional material used in the 4-H Tractor Program and the need for additional training and resources for volunteer leaders.

Impact of physical handicaps on operators of agricultural equipment.

Physically handicapped farm operators and agricultural workers face barriers which make the completion of many essential farm-related tasks difficult or even impossible. These barriers are especially burdensome with respect to the operation and maintenance of agricultural equipment. This paper reports on work being done at Purdue University to assist handicapped farmers and agricultural workers who wish to continue working in spite of their disabilities. The nature of physical handicaps and proportion of farmers affected by these handicaps is discussed. Potential health and safety risks that these operators are exposed to when operating agricultural equipment are addressed. In addition, a brief overview of the Purdue project and recent activities is provided.