The Graduation, Reality, and Dual‐role Skills (GRADS) home economics program helps at‐risk pregnant/parenting teens graduate from high school, set life goals, and feel empowered. The major purpose of this research was to ascertain if female GRADS students differed from nonpregnant/nonparenting female teens on types of goals seen as most important, goal orientation, and locus of control. Comparisons were made among GRADS students in the program for 1 year or more, GRADS students new to the program, and a group of English class female students who were neither pregnant nor parenting. Data were analyzed from 151 females at eight New Mexico sites. There were significant differences regarding most important goals, but no significant differences in goal orientation or locus of control among the three groups. Pregnant and/or parenting teens were more like their nonpregnant/nonparenting peers than different. The differences in goals appeared to reflect different priorities.

Two strategies for implementing a competency‐based course in home economics education were compared. Sixty‐three senior students were alternately assigned to a teacher‐directed or student‐directed class for attainment of specified competencies. Nine modules were developed to be used in the student‐directed class and as the basis for instruc tion in the teacher‐directed class. Criterion tests measured the extent to which compe tencies were attained for each group, and a Likert‐type scale indicated students' attitudes toward competency‐based education. Data were also analyzed to determine if student teach ing affected achievement of competencies. No significant difference in gain scores appeared between students who achieved com petencies through the student‐directed and teacher‐directed methods except in the competency area of program planning involving state standards. Significantly higher gain scores were attained by students who took the course before student teaching as opposed to those who took the course after student teaching in the competency areas of personal man agement, teaching skills, and motivation. No significant differences were found in gain scores between students who took the course before and after student teaching in the com petency areas of evaluation, departmental management, unit planning, program stan dards, or professionalism. No significant difference was found in attitude scores between individuals in the student‐directed and teacher‐directed sections.

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The nutrition education that most medical students receive is inadequate in quantity and quality, according to the National Research Council, which conducted a study of nutrition education in one-third of the medical schools in the United States. This finding stimulated the creation of the present study, which identified basic competencies in the field of nutrition that medical students should acquire and obtained the opinions of 484 medical school faculty members concerning both the importance of these competencies and where in the medical school curriculum students should acquire them. Of 39 competencies, the faculty members judged that 33 should be included in medical school curricula. Those rated most important were competencies in the use of enteral and parenteral feeding techniques in patient therapy, the improvement of fluid and electrolyte imbalances, and knowledge of the role of nutrition in the identification and management of selected disease states. There was significant agreement in ratings and curriculum placements by preclinical and clinical faculty members.