The goal of this doctoral program is to make substantial and sustainable improvements in long-term outcomes for students with significant cognitive disabilities and their families. The term, students with significant ccognitive disabilities, refers to those with moderate/severe mental retardation and severe/multiple disabilities.
The four objectives of the Significant Cognitive Disabilities (SCD) program are:
- To recruit, admit, advise, and provide supports for five doctoral students, of whom at least two will be from a culturally or linguistically diverse background or have a disability.
- To develop, implement and evaluate courses with a special emphasis on assessment quality, instructional quality, family support, and policy.
- To develop, implement and evaluate leadership practica to ensure that students have opportunities to assume leadership roles at local, state, and national levels.
- To place program graduates in roles in which they will provide national leadership, enabling them to assure that students with significant cognitive disabilities will achieve the educational and post-secondary outcomes anticipated by IDEA 2004.