What was going on when I was born?

United States and Cuban negotiators have reached an agreement in principle on the terms for repatriation to Cuba of some 2,500 criminals and mental patients, Administration officials said today. In return, they said, the United States would resume the processing of regular emigration from Cuba to this country. They said that the negotiators, Michael G. Kozak, deputy legal adviser of the State Department, and Ricardo Alarcon de Quesada, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, had concluded a third round of negotiations in New York last week with an agreement conditional on the approval of both Governments. If they approve, an announcement could be made as early as Thursday, the officials said. This would be the first agreement between the two Governments since the Reagan Administration took office, but Administration officials stressed that it was limited strictly to immigration matters.

P. Michael Timpane, a former director of the National Institute of Education, was inaugurated Friday as the eighth president of the Teachers College of Columbia University. In an interview, the 50-year old educator, who had been dean of the college since 1981, discussed his views on the state of teaching and teacher education. Following are excerpts from the interview. Q. Numerous states now have legislation providing for ''master teachers.'' Do you think this is a good idea? A. A great problem in the teaching profession is that it is so flat. You enter a classroom as a teacher, and unless you choose to leave the classroom to be a specialist or a supervisor, you're a teacher forever. There are not additional levels of responsibility and competence that are recognized and rewarded. I believe that some variation of the career ladder approach, with master teachers being one variety, is a good idea. There is also room for teachers who specialize in research, teachers who specialize in curriculum development and other models.

Jobs in many suburban stores are going unfilled during the holiday shopping rush, forcing employers to find new ways to attract part-time and seasonal help. Abraham & Straus, the department store chain, is busing young people from Brooklyn who have had trouble finding employment in the city to its stores in Paramus, N.J., and Manhasset, L.I. In northern New Jersey, Westchester County and Long Island, the shortages are similar to those of the past summer, when some suburban teen-agers shunned jobs at shopping malls or at the beaches that paid the minimum wage of $3.35 an hour. Many employers said they have never had so much trouble finding extra workers for the holidays. The shortage comes at the time of year when retail stores make 25 percent to 30 percent of their yearly sales. The shortage of employees is apparent in longer lines at checkout counters, poorly stocked shelves and signs in many store windows announcing that help is wanted.

The status of the President's science advisory office is in a state of flux that may leave it greatly strengthened or perhaps weak ened. The most dramatic proposal is to create a Cabinet-level Department of Science and Technology that would take over much research now being administered by other departments. Last week the President's Commission on Industrial Competitiveness, which is made up of industry leaders and George A. Keyworth 2d, the President's science adviser, finished a report in which it called on the Government to establish such a department to spur industrial innovation. Although the commission was officially silent on the scope of the proposed department, members informally said it might consolidate up to six Federal programs and agencies whose budgets this year total about $15 billion. ''What we're saying is that the future of the nation depends so critically on technology that it needs a stronger voice in Government,'' said Ian M. Ross, president of Bell Laboratories, a co- chairman of the commission's committee on research and development. ''Such a department would transform the current, fragmented formulation of policies for science and technology into one that would be far more effective in meeting long- term national goals,'' the commission said in its report.

An article in SportsMonday yesterday about the New York Giants' loss to the St. Louis Cardinals misstated the length of Ali-Haji Sheikh's field- goal attempt in the third quarter.

When President Reagan took office, he championed an approach to tax policy that greatly expanded incentives for specific types of business investment. This program has been credited with helping spur a recent surge in capital investment. Now, however, if the President endorses the Treasury's plan for overhauling the tax system, many economists feel that he would be abandoning this strategy of encouraging production through tax incentives - a strategy favored by supply-side theorists, among others - in the hope that free-market forces would nurture fruitful investment. Some analysts fear that removing these tax incentives would hurt business investment that they consider crucial to economic growth. ''For all the rhetoric we've heard about supply-side economics, this is sort of an anti-supply-side approach,'' said Nariman Behravesh of Wharton Econometrics, a forecasting and consulting firm. ''It provides a disincentive for investment.''