by requirements for the degree of (Education) - NCRTM

In a comparative study of the present status of a group of mentally
retarded individuals who had been trained in special classes in Omaha and
Lincoln, Nebraska, Public Schools with a comparable group who had received
training in regular classrooms between five and ten years earlier, Carriker
(1957) found that a large majority of both groups made successful occupa-
tional, social, marital, and civic adjustments. Special class subjects
tended to drop out of school earlier, to have poorer family background
to have had more frequent institutional experience and more court refer-
rals, but to have higher employer ratings.
In 1964 a follow-up study was conducted to determine the social and
vocational adjustment of graduates two or five years earlier from a secon-
dary special education Program (64 males, 51 females). Assessment was
based on personal interviews with subjects and employers. Findi.ngs: i) 21
subjects were married; 2) 18.8% of the males, and 29.4% of the females con-
tinued their education; 3) seven males and eight females C13% of the total)
had received vocational rehabilitation services; 4) 40% of the subjects
held part or full-time jobs, 38.3% were never employed, and 21.7% were
previously employed but not at present; 5) job classification: 21.7%
unskilled, 10.9% semi-skilled, 30.4% clerical, 8.7% .agriculture (Keeler,
1964).
In an invest.iation of the post-school adjustment of 45 adults who
attended special classes for the mentally retarded with 45 adults who were
of low economic status in secondary school, Peterson and Smith (1960) con-
cluded that the mentally retarded group did not find jobs immediately upon
leaving school and changed jobs twice as frequently as the comparison group.
In addition he found that the mentally retarded subjects married less
frequently and lived in substandard homes.
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