I am one. My oldest was an unhooked into an Ivy, incredibly smart with the work ethic to match. Middle has adhd, strong SAT score but didn’t so great in classes as can’t stay organized. Didn’t end up at a school anyone would be concerned about losing a spot from. I definitely want accommodations fairly scrutinized. It also bothered me my oldest from a deflation HS applied in a sea of easy 4.0’s applying. Plenty of issues all around. |
Which means they didn’t need the accommodations in the first place, right? |
So no glasses for the near or far sighted too? |
+100 My kid has had extra time since kindergarten. Multiple teachers have agreed she needs it and would not be doing as well in school without it. It's okay for some people to be a little slower. I am slow. I don't mean slow in the derogatory way that immature people use that word. I mean slow as in it takes me time to do things like read and write. Thankfully, I found a job that values quality over quantity and I have excelled in it. Our world needs people with all kinds of different strengths. A society loses out when it only accepts achievement that looks a certain way. |
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I mean, I don't think it's wrong to call out all the parents claiming some disability for their kids. The disability claim clearly works. Most Stanford students are claiming various disabilities. It's clearly a hook.
Get your disabilities if you can get one. |
But if they keep getting extra time and accommodations, how will they actually get funnelled into those careers that can accommodate lower processing speed? With the system we have today, they'll continue to be given ways to get around situations where speed IS a key factor and end up in a profession where they are in either over their heads, or - worse - putting others at risk. |
If it's ok to be slow then anyone who got extra time should have a footnote that they took the tests with extra time. It's ok to be slow, right? |
Did you get accommodations in school? |
Excellent point. But right now everyone who argues their kids should have extra time is vehemently opposed to the College Board indicating whether someone has had extra time. You can't have it both ways. |
I don't think anyone would have a problem disclosing they were wearing glasses or contacts when taking the test. And getting an eye test is far cheaper and easier than a test that would determine whether you were eligible for extra time. Given that barrier, everyone should have an untimed test to truly level the playing field. |
That's not true at all. These kids only get *reasonable" accommodations. Same with adults. I've actually worked on reasonable accommodation cases. A school or an employer can deny an accommodation if it's unreasonable. Extra time on the SAT: reasonable. It's not harming anyone. Preferential seating in a lecture hall: reasonable. Extra time to treat patients in an emergency room: unreasonable (and impossible). They get funneled into those careers the same way that anyone else does: based on their qualifications. You can graduate from law school, but no one is going to hire you to an appellate lawyer if you are a crappy writer. You're not getting that job as a surgeon if you need extra time to treat patients, but you could get a job as a pathologist. What do you think is going to happen? Someone with slow processing speed with accommodations is going to slip through the cracks and end up killing someone in an ER? If the accommodations are unreasonable in the circumstances, they will be denied. The problem with denying accommodations is that you are preventing kids who could become pathologists because they can't be ER doctors. Do you think accommodations are work or something? |
It is OK to be slow. That's why you don't need the footnote. You'd only add the footnote if it isn't OK. |
It doesn't tell the whole story. The test scores with the grades would tell the complete story. |
If you indicated that the kid received extra time, it wouldn't be an accommodation. The concept of the accommodation is to prevent the disability from affecting the test score. Disclosing that the kid has extra time assumes that the extra time affected the test score. You want people to know that accommodations were granted because you don't believe the test score is accurate, given the accommodations. You might as well deny the acommodations because you reach the same result. |
But if a key aspect of a particular exam is time, and someone has done the test with a relaxation of that key requirement, shouldn't it be noted? And btw, this is the reason why so many people are gaming the system. If there was a note that the person had accommodations, then you wouldn't see that flagrant abuse. |