Acknowledgments

MANY PERSONS have contributed to the study reported here

that it is a truly cooperative project. Although everyone who aided is not here acknowledged individually, appreciation is extended to each one, for without such cooperation this report would not have been possible. For major contributions special gratitude is due:

◆ The Association for the Aid of Crippled Children, for their cooperation throughout the project.

The members of both the National Advisory and the Policy Committees, for their wise counsel and guidance.

The consultants who gave advice on special problems.

◆ The teachers of mentally retarded children who carefully completed extensive inquiry forms.

◆ The members of the Competency Committee who prepared a statement of the distinctive skills and abilities needed by teachers of children who are mentally retarded.

The educators who assisted in developing and pretesting items contained in the inquiry forms, among whom were: Elizabeth Biles, J. J. Blindt, S. Brot, Chris J. DeProspo, M. P. Fletcher, Mrs. Corrie H. Hamer, Gerald S. Hasterok, Lillian Hill, Karleen M. Hoffman, Jane Johnson, John S. Keefer, Mrs. Margaret R. Kiernan, Herbert R. Liehtman, Edward Looney, Gloria Panitch, Mildred Schwartz, Howard H. Spicker, Eugene Straley, Rebekah Talbert, Ada Valentine, and P. O. Wagner.

Naomi Nehrer, Albert Pelley, and Ann Stevenson of the study staff, who had responsibility for collating and preparing data for publication.

Herbert S. Conrad, director, Research and Statistical Services Branch, Office of Education who has played an important part in the planning and execution of this project, and Mrs. Mabel C. Rice and other members of that staff who assisted in the planning and execution of some of the statistical operations.

IN

Introduction

【N RECENT YEARS public interest in the problems of children who have exceptional educational needs has grown very rapidly. This interest has been especially strong in problems of mentally retarded children.

Some of the causes of this development can be identified. The success of specialized programs of teaching these children is one of the more important. New knowledge in the field has stimulated the hope of future expansion of knowledge on this subject. Active and articulate parent groups are contributing to public acceptance and understanding of these children and their needs. As professional leadership in State and local school systems has developed, more and more retarded pupils are being identified and served. State legislative and financial school support have accelerated the growth of programs.

The widespread interest and action have created an unprecedented demand for numbers of teachers to work in this area. It is generally agreed, however, that programs should not be expanded at the cost of lowered quality of instruction. On the contrary, there has been a reawakening of interest in the improvement of instructional programs.

Interest in the improvement of the quality of instruction has been shown by the teachers themselves, by State and local school officials, parent-groups, and teacher preparation institutions. In order to throw new light on the problems involved in securing well qualified teachers, leaders in the field have considered it necessary to analyze further some of the elements essential to adequate professional preparation. What are the specialized competencies that the teacher of the retarded child should have? What types of experiences might contribute most to the development of these competencies? The importance of these problems in all areas of exceptionality seemed so great that a study was initiated on a nation-wide scale.

This publication reports that part of the broad project on Qualification and Preparation of Teachers of Exceptional Children which deals specifically with the distinctive skills and abilities needed by teachers of mentally retarded children.

It includes information on: (1) Competencies needed by teachers of children who are mentally retarded; (2) opinions on the proficiency of some teachers of mentally retarded; (3) education and experience for acquiring the competencies (4) summary and implications, and (5) areas for further study.

HOW INFORMATION WAS COLLECTED

Since no inventory of competencies was available, a major focus in this study was the identification and evaluation of the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to the teacher. The study was limited to those competencies distinctive to the field of mentally retarded children.

In the examination of competencies, information was gathered by two techniques.1 First, a committee of experts prepared a report identifying and describing the competencies which they thought to be important and distinctive. for teachers of retarded children and youth. In the second approach, a list of competencies was submitted (through inquiry forms) to superior teachers of the mentally retarded for evaluation as to importance.

3

All the other information presented in the report was collected by means of inquiry forms. The teachers were requested to evaluate their own proficiency in the competencies they had rated for importance. Parallel information was collected from State and local directors and supervisors of special education who were asked to rate the proficiency of some recently trained teachers of the mentally retarded. College staff members, as well as these three groups, rated the importance of regular teaching, amount of student teaching required, and some general patterns of professional preparation.

This report, therefore, presents national opinion of recognized professional workers in the field on the special competencies required of teachers of the mentally retarded and on some of the professional experiences that may be needed in developing these competencies.

It is hoped that the findings of this report will be of value to a wide range of professional workers concerned with improving the quality of teaching in the field of the retarded. It should serve as an aid to those in the field of teacher preparation in the layout of teacher training programs. It should be helpful to supervisors as a tool in conferences with individual teachers, and in planning in-service programs with them. Finally, it should be helpful in the development of certification standards by defining more clearly the types of preparation which should be required of the teacher.

1 See appendix A for a more complete outline of the plan of the study.

2 The full report of this committee appears in this publication on pages 3 to 22.

3 See appendix D for excerpts from the inquiry forms.

THE

Competencies Needed
by Teachers

HIS SECTION of the report deals with the specialized competencies needed by teachers of mentally retarded children. It contains: (1) The competency committee report, and (2) the list of competencies included in the inquiry form and rated by teachers. First the committee report is reproduced in as arly verbatim form as is editorially possible. Second, results from the teac..ers' responses to the inquiry forms are reported with the items arranged in rank order of importance as evaluated by the teachers. This is then followed by a general discussion of the findings.

Some of basic guidelines set up for the competency committee report were as follows:

It is understood that we are producing a professional statement of goals to be achieved rather than something which can be immediately translated into State certification standards or teacher education programs. What we as committees agree upon as desirable competencies will be continuously modified by the results of research and the growing body of funded knowledge . . .

The distinctive competencies should be qualitatively and/or quantitatively defined, i.e., distinguished from, or additional to, those needed by personnel concerned with the so-called normal child. Committees are not expected to list the competencies needed by the regular classroom teachers . . .

(Titles of committee members are shown on page iv.)

The committee has accepted the definition of a mentally retarded child as one who is handicapped, educationally and socially, because of low intelligence to the degree that he requires special educational facilities.

The mentally retarded may be classified into three categories:

Group 1.-This group is composed of individuals for whom some degree