Accommodation requests for sitting for SAT and ACT college entrance and talent search examinations

[Anonymous]

Do affluent families and students in area D.C. private schools game the national testing system (SAT/ACT) with special requests for accommodation (e.g. spurious diagnoses such as A.H.A.D.)?

...Testing organizations have long feared that unmerited accommodations, especially extra time, undermines their exams’ integrity.

A 2000 audit of California test takers showed a disproportionate number of white, affluent students receiving accommodations, igniting suspicions of exaggerated or nonexistent disabilities. Three years later, in the wake of a lawsuit, ACT and the College Board stopped flagging scores of accommodated students for admissions offices; with the stigma gone, the incentive grew to game the system

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[Anonymous]

This recent article from the NY Times provides an interesting account:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/education/edlife/07strategy-t.html?pagewan
ted=2
<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/education/edlife/07strategy-t.html?pagewa
nted=2&ref=education> &ref=education

[Anonymous]

Yes, my child's pediatrician and a teacher I know at one of DC's top privates have commented on this very thing. You would not believe the percentage of students who get accommodations at this top private. It flies in the face of the school's reputation.

The gaming is amazing.

[Anonymous]

There are also those of us whose children have legitimate need for the accommodations. Or you could say we've been gaming this since 1st grade.

[Anonymous]

As the mother of two children with ADHD I have to roll my eyes at yet another permutation on the "they're just faking it" meme. I can't tell you how dispiriting it is to hear this "your child should tough it out like everyone else" rant when my child isn't like everyone else. And if you had a child whose brain works differently than everyone else's you would feel the same way. But you don't, so you would rather accuse other parents of gaming based on urban myths that have no basis in fact.

My children seek no accommodations. They don't want to, even though it is absolutely more difficult for them to complete tests on time. They would rather get lower scores. So rest assured that we aren't taking away from your precious child's test scores.

[Anonymous]

I have not heard of this phenomena amongst the Asian, African and Hispanic American communities and the urban public schools but also suspected this practise in private school and affluent surburban school communities from a number of my neighbors who also try to obtain accommodations for their children for testing not only for the SAT and ACT; but also for testing in the local school. If I were a journalist in the education sphere this is a subject area that begs for more in depth research and data gathering. What are the implications for student and school comparisons of SAT and ACT relative performance? What are the implications on college and university admissions? Are those testers and schools that employ this practise flagged? And if so, can this confounders be accounted for in comparative analyses?

Interesting fodder for thought given the private school and private school students preoccupation with these entrance tests, tutoring, test preparation, multiple anonymous test taking, test accommodation and the university matriculation sweepstakes. It appears a twist of irony these $35,000/year educational mills find a need for gaming the system but similar paradox exists too down the paths of Wall Street.

[Anonymous]

There are also those of us whose children have legitimate need for the accommodations. Or you could say we've been gaming this since 1st grade.

The poster (s) is not addressing students with legitimate claims. I'm sure Whites do not suffer, proportionally, from an excessive epidemic of learning disorders and disabilities!

[Anonymous]

As the mother of two children with ADHD I have to roll my eyes at yet another permutation on the "they're just faking it" meme. I can't tell you how dispiriting it is to hear this "your child should tough it out like everyone else" rant when my child isn't like everyone else. And if you had a child whose brain works differently than everyone else's you would feel the same way. But you don't, so you would rather accuse other parents of gaming based on urban myths that have no basis in fact.

My children seek no accommodations. They don't want to, even though it is absolutely more difficult for them to complete tests on time. They would rather get lower scores. So rest assured that we aren't taking away from your precious child's test scores.

Do you subscribe to the hypothesis that White children (compared to other ethnic groups) have a preponderance of learning disorders and disabilities that warrant accommodations for SAT/ACT and other testing in school?

This seems to be one of the implications of some of the findings regarding accommodation for these tests; hence the need for further study to validate these findings ( or uncover their spuriousness).

[Anonymous]

I have not heard of this phenomena amongst the Asian, African and Hispanic American communities and the urban public schools but also suspected this practise in private school and affluent surburban school communities from a number of my neighbors who also try to obtain accommodations for their children for testing not only for the SAT and ACT; but also for testing in the local school. If I were a journalist in the education sphere this is a subject area that begs for more in depth research and data gathering. What are the implications for student and school comparisons of SAT and ACT relative performance? What are the implications on college and university admissions? Are those testers and schools that employ this practise flagged? And if so, can this confounders be accounted for in comparative analyses?

Interesting fodder for thought given the private school and private school students preoccupation with these entrance tests, tutoring, test preparation, multiple anonymous test taking, test accommodation and the university matriculation sweepstakes. It appears a twist of irony these $35,000/year educational mills find a need for gaming the system but similar paradox exists too down the paths of Wall Street.

... GAMING THE SYSTEM

On an accompanying DCUM thread is a discussion of red shirting prior to entering private school. In other words, repeating K/1st, 7th or 9th grades in transitioning from public to private schools. In the same context, does this practise occur much more amongst affluent White students and families in area D.C. private schools?

[Anonymous]

8:51 and others: Obviously this is true. But do you not find it odd that so many parents of sophomores suddenly suspect learning issues? I do. That does not begin to imply that some children do not need accommodations. I don't know how old your child is, but my child is in high school, and the stories I am beginning to hear about gaming the system are chilling, and involve more than testing accommodations.

[Anonymous]

Two points, FWIW:

First, the sudden discovery of learning issues in tenth grade can be entirely legitimate. Just as first graders have to sit still for the first time, just as fourth graders move from "learning to read" to "reading to learn, and just as middle schoolers have new, challenging organizational demands, sophomores are faced with textbooks and writing projects at a whole new level. A poor reader who has gotten by on familiar words, context clues, and great reasoning may find those strategies to be ineffective; a poor writer who has gotten by with memorizing many facts may not be able to organize their thoughts and explain their analysis. Not that no-one is trying to game the system, but don't assume that EVERY new diagnosis is bogus.

Second, there is research that shows that giving extra time to kids who don't need it does not lead to higher scores, at least on the SAT. Instead, their scores may go down as they use the time to second-guess and change correct answers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Two points, FWIW:

First, the sudden discovery of learning issues in tenth grade can be entirely legitimate. Just as first graders have to sit still for the first time, just as fourth graders move from "learning to read" to "reading to learn, and just as middle schoolers have new, challenging organizational demands, sophomores are faced with textbooks and writing projects at a whole new level. A poor reader who has gotten by on familiar words, context clues, and great reasoning may find those strategies to be ineffective; a poor writer who has gotten by with memorizing many facts may not be able to organize their thoughts and explain their analysis. Not that no-one is trying to game the system, but don't assume that EVERY new diagnosis is bogus.

Second, there is research that shows that giving extra time to kids who don't need it does not lead to higher scores, at least on the SAT. Instead, their scores may go down as they use the time to second-guess and change correct answers.

Extra time also means you are sitting in the test for nearly 7 hours with only about 10 total minutes for breaks. My dds performance goes down by the end of that time. But she tried the PSAT without extra time and couldn't finish any of the sections (processing speed issues). At least extra time gives her a chance to finish the test.

[Anonymous]

8:51 and others: Obviously this is true. But do you not find it odd that so many parents of sophomores suddenly suspect learning issues? I do. That does not begin to imply that some children do not need accommodations. I don't know how old your child is, but my child is in high school, and the stories I am beginning to hear about gaming the system are chilling, and involve more than testing accommodations.

I do not find it odd in the least. It's called gaming the system. On a side note, over half of my classmates from an exclusive prep school had their children repeat a grade when their children, too, entered prep schools in 9th and 10th grades from other schools (This practise has gone on for decades!). It was not because of prior poor performance but to get the old nasty leg up on the competition for Ivy sweepstakes. In my old roommates case, both children were A students from public school, repeated a grade to enter exclusive private schools. The boy became a National Merit Semi-Finalist and took a student leadership position. Both kids are nestled comfortably in the Ivy League.

This strategy is not what my kids have followed but I have no qualms with others who believe or convince themselves that such paths are worth taking. But, for those not in the know, these practices are not simple anomalies or anecdotes. They happen frequently and all the time in D.C., NY and New England. Perhaps the conversation should go to the Public School board as I'm sure one is already preaching to the converted on this Private School board!

[Anonymous]

Two points, FWIW:

First, the sudden discovery of learning issues in tenth grade can be entirely legitimate. Just as first graders have to sit still for the first time, just as fourth graders move from "learning to read" to "reading to learn, and just as middle schoolers have new, challenging organizational demands, sophomores are faced with textbooks and writing projects at a whole new level. A poor reader who has gotten by on familiar words, context clues, and great reasoning may find those strategies to be ineffective; a poor writer who has gotten by with memorizing many facts may not be able to organize their thoughts and explain their analysis. Not that no-one is trying to game the system, but don't assume that EVERY new diagnosis is bogus.

Second, there is research that shows that giving extra time to kids who don't need it does not lead to higher scores, at least on the SAT. Instead, their scores may go down as they use the time to second-guess and change correct answers.

Do you think that a student can progress through a fancy, $35,000/year exclusive and challenging education in area Big 3 private school (ERB exams every year) and in the 10th grade develop the acute onset of a learning disability? Are you a Neurologist/Psychiatrist or a microbiologist working with Petri dishes? Please give us a valid reference for any one of your speculative claims.

[Anonymous]

I don't know why you think parents have suddenly discovered a learning disorder in 10th grade. Most likely it was always there but you didn't know about it until the child took the PSATs.

ADHD is underdiagnosed in minority communities.

But hey, as one poster pointed out, if you want your non-ADHD child to sit in that room for 7 hours, go for it.