STATUS STUDY OF COMPREHENSIVE AND RELEVANT DRIVER EDUCATION PROGRAMS IN THE STATE OF ILLINOIS

Although driver education has been taught in the State of Illinois and throughout the United States since the 1950s, little was known about how driver education teachers and high school students view driver education in the State of Illinois. The scope of this research was to determine the specific subject areas covered in driver education courses as well as the amount of time spent in each. The development of this type of information would assist the Illinois Department of Transportation in assessing its safety education and injury prevention program. Data were collected through two separate, but similar questionnaires. One questionnaire was mailed to every high school in Illinois. The second questionnaire was personally administered by Southern Illinois University at Carbondale (SIUC) project staff to students in randomly-selected districts from all ten regions of Illinois. Each questionnaire listed twenty-six possible topic areas along with two "other" areas where the respondents could add another topic that might not have been listed. The median time (spent or should be spent) was found to be at least one hour for each topic item. Students indicated that, in all but four cases, they wanted more time spent on the topics than did the teachers. Driver education teachers and the students who have completed high school driver education programs want more hours devoted to most of the topics covered in the program. The recommendations included having Illinois strengthening the minimum requirements of the high school driver education program, raising the minimum time spent to 45 hours of classroom and 10 hours of laboratory. Recommendations pertaining to the Division of Traffic Safety, Illinois Department of Transportation, included providing grants to the Illinois State Board of Education and universities to develop new/necessary driver education and graduated licensing materials/learning packages/curriculum support; hiring a driver education specialist who can work with the various state agencies, professional organizations, high schools, and universities; and creating a research agenda relating to driver education.

• Corporate Authors:

  Southern Illinois University, Carbondale

  Center for Injury Control and Worksite Health Promotion
  Carbondale, IL  United States  62901-6731

  Illinois Transportation Research Center

  200 University Park Drive
  Edwardsville, IL  United States  62026-1806
• Authors:
  • Ritzel, D O
  • Shannon, D V
  • Leitner, D W
• Publication Date: 1997-1

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 99 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Data collection; Driver education; Driver licensing; Graduated licensing; Questionnaires; Recommendations; Students; Surveys; Teachers
• Geographic Terms: Illinois
• Subject Areas: Education and Training; Highways; Research; Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00736853
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: ITRC FR 94-1, Final Report
• Contract Numbers: VA-H1, 1994
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: May 14 1997 12:00AM