Hi,
PennController’s Html element is just a wrapper for Ibex’s Form controller. This controller only detects <input type="text">, <textarea>, <input type="checkbox"> and <input type="radio"> fields (reference)
If you really want to use an HTML input element of type range and have its value recorded, you can do this:
<input name="proficiency" min="1" max="9" step="1" type="range" onchange="(function(e){document.querySelector('#pfh').value=e.value;})(this)">
<input name='proficiency_hidden' type='text' id='pfh' style='display:none;'>
Jeremy