Special Education Screening: History, Philosophy, and the Montessori Method

Overview: Special Education Before Legal Recognition

Part of why special education became an issue in America was the implementation of the standard grade, which "was first introduced in Massachusetts in 1847 in response to the organizational needs of the evolving school system" (Winzer 328). The standard grade implied that all students of the same age were expected to master the same skills and advance at the same time to the next set of curricula. One of the first leading proponents of special education in North America was the psychologist J. E. Wallace Wallin, who was part of the Progressive Movement of the early 20th century. Wallin challenged the standard grade concept and "discounted as myth the idea that all children should fit within a standard grade and that schools should assign children to the same grade level on the basis of their ages" (Winzer 328). Wallin also highlighted characteristics of special needs students and showed that students with learning disabilities were "almost always irritated, disheartened, depressed or embittered by the progress and not infrequently [the] jibes and ridicule of the normal pupils" (Wallin 390). Wallin asserted that the standard grade concept should be abandoned and that curricula should be more flexible so that a variety of students could receive an education tailored to meet their needs. For students who were particularly deficient, he called for "special classes" and applied the terms "orthogenic" and "orthophrenic" to students who exhibited learning disabilities.

By 1900, 20% of all students in public schools in the U.S. were special needs students (Winzer), but through the support of proponents like Wallin, "the first class for mentally retarded children opened in Atlanta in 1915" (Winzer 329). Early identification, or screening, was conducted through the use of IQ tests, which were deemed "crucial to the advance of special segregated classes" (Winzer 329). The methods for screening relied entirely upon "mental tests, properly used and properly interpreted" (Terman 5). By 1916, a clinical set of criteria had been provided to educators for screening students with special needs. The IQ test was adopted in several states as a legal basis for determining which students should be assigned to specially segregated special needs classes.

The rise of special needs classes, however, was met with backlash, especially among the eugenicists of the time, who wanted to implement their own strategy for solving the problem of the "feebleminded," as these students were often called. The eugenicists' solution was to breed them out of existence using methods of forced sterilization. Teaching these students was viewed by opponents of special classes for the learning disabled as a waste of resources and a drain on the national economy (Winzer), yet the number of classes continued to grow: Boston had 9 special needs classes in 1912 and 141 by 1941. Along with this growth, the categorization of special needs students also expanded. Students were "tested, labeled, and slotted into ungraded, auxiliary, opportunity, open-air, steamer, welfare, and other types of classes" (Winzer 331).

Screening for hearing impairment did not arrive until the 1920s, but visual impairment was screened for as early as 1899 using a visual function test known as the Snellen chart. This type of screening helped educators identify students with special sight needs and aided reformers in developing special classes for the blind or visually impaired. Children with speech impairment issues were identified by signs of "lisping, stammering, and stuttering" and were assigned to special classes as well (Winzer 332). Teaching special needs students required a new curriculum, and teachers were specially trained: by 1930, sixteen states required that teachers hold special certification to provide special education (Winzer 334).