PRICE Needs Assessment Study. Project PRICE Working Paper No. 7.

A needs assessment study involving 264 school personnel from six Midwestern public school systems (grades 7-12) was undertaken by Project PRICE (Programming Retarded in Career Education) to determine (1) what types of school personnel feel they can work with educable retarded students, (2) what competencies they feel they can help the students acquire, and (3) the inservice training needs and other assistance of such school personnel. Respondents were given two field questionnaires to evaluate the PRICE career education competencies listed, to identify other major competencies important for retarded students to acquire, and to determine which personnel were felt to be most appropriate to teach each of the competency categories. Results led to conclusions such as the following: that career education of retarded students should involve a wide variety of school discipline (all categories of counselors/teachers indicated that their discipline was appropriate for teaching at least some of the 24 competencies), and that occupational guidance and preparation appears to be the most deficient curriculum area. (Appended material includes the questionnaire forms and the study results in tabular form.) (IM)