Accountability Study of the Program for Trainable Mentally Retarded Children and Youth. Summary Evaluation Report, 1973-74.

Monies granted under Title VI-B of the Education of the Handicapped Act funded an accountability study of the Duval County Program (Jacksonville, Florida) for trainable mentally handicapped (TMH) children and youth. An organized collection of approximately 675 behavioral objectives and accompanying criterion test items was developed for evaluating TMH student performance and overall program effectiveness. The objectives were incorporated in a volume of 869 instructional objectives (A Catalog of Instructional Objectives for Trainable Mentally Retarded Students) in the areas or language development, social adequacy, and vocational readiness. The behavioral objectives and criterion test items were field tested by teachers of the TMH, reviewed by experts, and compared with major curriculum guides for TMH programs. Field testing indicated that the use of criterion test items with TMH students was an expensive, time-consuming, and disruptive evaluation technique. In an attempt to establish a more functional and less expensive evaluation alternative, a checklist of 80 sample behavior items was compiled on the basis of importance ranking of skill areas by parents, teachers, and community agency personnel. Findings showed that the checklist instrument was highly reliable in and of itself and correlated very highly with the use of corresponding criterion test items as an evaluation alternative. (GW)