Wall Street Journal on rampant growth in percentage of college students with “disabilities”
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Anonymous
When you have a condition like ADHD, your brain works at a different speed and consequently careless errors are very common. Giving these kids the chance to go back and check work without tight time constraints shows the true intellectual capabilities of these kids. The brain of a child with ADHD is like a Porsche engine stuck inside a Volkswagen bug. His body is going at one pace but internally he has a motor that’s running a million miles an hour. The extra time gives these kids a chance to create balance where it doesn't exist. Using the extra time enables them to go back and see where they moved too fast and checked the wrong answer because of the Porsche brain/Volkswagon body analogy. My kid's biggest issue is careless errors. He knows the material, but in a testing situation he moves to fast. An example is that he would know the equation to solve a particular math question, but perhaps he will move too fast and make a careless calculation error. The extra time gives him the opportunity to go back and look for those errors. You can say just teach them to slow down. That is a good thought, but their brains are wired differently, and slowing down is impossible. |
Anonymous
Sorry, it doesn't work that way. If you gave the extra time, the scores would be wacky and a perfect score would mean nothing. A perfect score could mean someone was in the 70th percentile. Is that what you want? |
Anonymous
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If college was anything like real life some of the nasty and negative comments here might make sense. But college isnt. It just teaches you what you need to know and it gets you the degree you need to get a job. I mean really, in what job the SAT or ACT have any relevance. Or tests in general. Who takes tests at work.
In real life many of the accommodations that kids get are just a natural part of a job. I mean really, if you need a break, employers dont forbid bathroom and water breaks. Speaking programs are often used instead of actual writing or typing. And if the need certain accommodations prevent someone from being successful in a job, then the person likely won’t apply for the job, won’t get the job or won’t stay in the job. I find it appalling that people are so anti accommodations which level the playing field and make kids eligible for jobs that they otherwise couldnt have gotten. I think this is the real issue - elitists want less competition for good jobs and by eliminating accommodations they can eliminate competition. |
Anonymous
| My daughter has an eye tracking disorder and 17th percentile processing speed with a 56% IQ. Extra time and other support means she can earn decent grades instead of being deemed a failure. She wants to go to Nursing school so she won’t compete with your kid for those top college spots so why do you care so much about her accommodations? Or would OP rather she fail out of school and end up on welfare because allowing her that extra time on the ACT is unfair to her kid? |
Anonymous
The Op's post was about the rampant growth in student disabilities in just the last few years. Astonishing four-fold increase at some schools. I'm sure some percentage of these, like your daughter, are totally legitimate. Still one has to wonder why the sudden explosion of students with mental disabilities. |
Anonymous
Fees- most colleges have a Office of Student Disability. My DC's school covers that and other similar services under one umbrella fee for "Student Services"- according to their statistics almost every student uses one or other of the student services during their tenure as a student. Individual rooms usually have an additional cost to the student. For scribes and readers, if they are not electronic (as in the case for most of my DC's tests), it is the professor or TA that does it. It is part of their overall salary. He gets class notes from the professor. So far, DC has not seen anyone else in his classes have the reader/scribe- so it isn't used very much. |
Anonymous
Except having more time doesn't magically mean you know the material. Give a student who doesn't know the answer more time and they're just as likely to lower their grade. Even on take home tests you get the usual striations between high performers who know the material and those who dont. Eliminating extra time accommodations creates barriers for those who require extra time just to access the arbitrary format of the exam and answer sheet. Like I said, forcing someone with a learning disability to deal with only written material is as arbitrary as forcing a natural reader to take the test just by listening. Forcing someone with autism to take the test in a classroom with 60 other people is like forcing a typical to take it in a busy cafeteria. Forcing someone with dus graphic to hand write an essay in the same amount of time turns into an exercise of their handwriting speed rather than their ideas and composition skills. The test formats and time limits are designed to give enough time for people who are not handicapped by arbitrary elements of the test itself that have nothing to do with how well you know the material. |
Anonymous
| *dysgraphia. .. apparently autocorrect doesnt like it either. |
Anonymous
Diagnosis is better. Accommodations is more mainstream so more colleges are providing them. And because of this, more people are seeking them. Years ago, someone who was high functioning autistic would have been just labeled "quirky." And yes, at some schools the rate has gone up significantly but that's because these students are seeking out colleges that have a reputation for being more receptive to kids with disability. Not to game the system but it's all part of finding the right "fit" in the college search. There are certain schools that you avoid for your child because you've heard terrible things about their disability office. Wrong "fit." And then I imagine certain colleges have a higher percentage of students with disability because the college is known to be more receptive to these students. I think we all benefit as members of the society if everyone does well. Most students with disability can do well in college, jobs and life. As pp said, it doesn't make sense to fail these kids out of college or bar them from college because they can't keep up without the accommodations. It doesn't benefit anyone. I speak from experience. I have a brother with learning disability. But he never got diagnosed because my parents just didn't know back then anything about it. He failed out of college (one that pretty much accepts anyone that pays) and is now working manual labor jobs, living with my parents, in his 40's and unmarried. The sad part is that he is truly smart in some ways with amazing memory and visual/spatial skills. I wonder what life would have been like for him if he had grown up today, with parents who are more on top of these issues, and in a more supportive school environment. |
Anonymous
There is likely to be some level of abuse but there is not enough data to tell. Is the 20% of kids in this Chicago because of over identification? Or does it mean kids at poorer schools are less likely to be identified when they have a disability? We actually know the latter is true. The former is supposition. I would guess it's some of both, though. Pointing to the rapid growth of disability accommodations in colleges and saying it's because of abuse is as valid as saying the rapid growth of gay people getting married in 2015 was because there was a rapid increase in the number of gay people. If you didn't have the extra data regarding our marriage laws, that would be a pretty reasonable seeming supposition. |
Anonymous
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But all of the OMG people are gaming the system because it's so easy hysteria is pretty laughable. Going through the IEP process (which you need in order to get testing accommodations) is far from easy. It is also still regarded as shameful by many to be atypical so frequently kids who really need the accommodations refuse to take them. This is a huge problem and the attitudes on display here are the root of it. Someone with a disability has just as much right to pursue the career of their choice as a typical. They will have to work harder than their typical peers but for most that is hardly a new thing.
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Anonymous
| Or are we better able to detect such disabilities that were left untreated in the past? |
Anonymous
Nope. Everyone should get more time. I'm positive my LSAT score would have been 10 points higher with extra time for the logic problems. The whole POINT of that section is to see *how fast your brain works.* |
Anonymous
| My DS has severe social and general anxiety disorder, he did not ask for special accommodation( you know, he has anxiety! that prevents him from admitting he needs help....) and he has very average grades, two As, B and one C, which he realized with tutoring(also got it late, as he was embarrassed to admit he needed help...) would have been easy a B and probably an A. So, I think, as we are paying for extra tutoring even in college, that in the past people like my son, found a way to get extra help when needed, it just wasn't so publicly done like today. |
Anonymous
I agree that it's extremely unlikely that there is a lot of gaming the IEP system. Parents actually do not want their child "labeled" incorrectly, and it is also hard to meet the legal standard for an IEP. But the college "disabilities" are not that rigorous to show. |