EXEMPLARY PUBLIC RELATIONS PROGRAMS AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL USED TO IDENTIFY HOME ECONOMICS PUBLIC RELATIONS PROGRAMS IN PENNSYLVANIA STATE HIGH SCHOOLS

The study was on the identification of home economics public relations programs used in Pennsylvania state high schools using exemplary public relations programs at the national level as a guide. This was in response to the demand for various public relations activities that would enable the general public to be well informed and enlightened about the program of home economics and consequently, get them to be interested and supportive of the program.;Only 512 out of the 1,038 Pennsylvania state high school home economics teachers were selected for the questionnaire survey.;The instrument used for the study was a Public Relations Technique Questionnaire (PRTQ).;The procedure consisted of making contacts with the national-state directors for vocational education and home economics professional associations requesting for successful home economics public relations materials and/or information, developing and validating the questionnaire instrument, and administering it to the Pennsylvania state high school home economics teachers. The descriptive statistics: One-Way Frequency Distribution and Related Measures of Association, Sub-program Crosstabs was the SPSS computer program used to evaluate the data.;The population consisted of national-state directors of vocational education, home economics professional associations, and Pennsylvania state high school home economics teachers.;The result and findings of the study revealed the use of day-to-day word of mouth, displays, bulletin board displays, home economics program description, school awards ceremony, field trips/tours, photographs, advisory council meetings, newspapers/newsletters, and student orientation session to promote home economics to in-school public; and day-to-day word of mouth, displays and newsletters/newspapers for out-of-school public. This provides evidence that Pennsylvania state high schools are using only 12 or 40% of the kinds of Home Economics Public Relations Program (HEPRP) identified at the national level for in-school and out-of-school public. More specifically, Pennsylvania state high schools are using 12 or 40% of the 30 HEPRP for in-school public and 3 or 10% for out-of-school public.;The findings of the study revealed that sufficient numbers of public relations techniques were not used to promote home economics to both in-school and out-of-school publics.;It is anticipated that if most of the nationally identified HEPRP are tried and eventually used the public will be well informed and home economics programs will expand and grow for the better.