| The current legislation No Child Left Behind mandates that students with mental retardation have access to core curriculum courses. A comprehensive life skills program, Life Centered Career Education (LCCE), was integrated into the curriculum of high school students with mental retardation. The LCCE program was utilized to educate students on Personal-Social, Daily Life skills, and Occupational lessons with an academic emphasis. The study measured improvements made in the personal-social skills of students measured by pre- and posttest scores of the LCCE Knowledge Battery and Competency Rating Scale (CRS). The study observed differences in the control group and an experimental group receiving the LCCE instruction. The results indicated that the students participating in the experimental group did not show a greater increase in scores on the Knowledge Battery and Competency Rating Scale than the scores of students who belonged to the control group. Furthermore, interviews with the participating instructors indicate that the experimental group would potentially demonstrate significantly higher scores if the personal-social skills curriculum was continued over an extended period of time and continuously reinforced. |
