WSJ article on more students especially the affluent get extra time on SAT

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the PP who said the school recommended an accommodation for one kid that we have not taken.

My kid does not have a disability - Kid has an SAT score in the top 3% of students, but is looking for a few extra points. What i think is nuts is that there is a clear trend of kids testing in the top 5% of students who are getting extra time so they can try to get a top 1% score so they can get into one of a tiny number of schools where that is average. These kids are not dyslexic, they don't have ADHD. They are doing this to give themselves an advantage for a handful of top schools. If my kid can't get the extra points they need maybe they don't get into a school where all the kids have tippy top scores and I am fine with that. There are a lot of great schools they can go to. I actually think that's the way it's supposed to work.

if they take the test with extra time it's reported. My son is autistic and took the text with extra time the first time but then took it the second time without extra time in case the extra time became an issue. The difference in grade was marginal and he had no interest in attending a high stress school. At any rate, it should give you some comfort that extra time is reported as part of the test score.

No, flagging accommodations on a score report is illegal and is not supposed to occur. This was an issue some years back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is another reason why we need the “adversity score” on the SAT.

No, this is all we need.

1 PSAT and 1 PACT given sophomore year in their high school- about 1 month apart from the other.

1 SAT and 1 ACT given end of junior year - about 1 month apart from the other.

That is it. No retakes. No accommodations. No special privileges. There are plenty of test optional schools if you don't do well.

This is the method used in most other places in the world but... american exceptionalism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I only sent my kids to private because they have a learning disability. The number make sense to me.

These are public schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one should get extra time. It is just a scam for the wealthy to push their kids above the others.

In real life you don't get extra time.

Really? My kid with ADHD got 1030 on the PSAT with a 504. Is this a score of a scam??

Our friend’s son got a 1550 with extra time and the kid was thrilled, as was the mom. She directly said it was a boatload of work for the accommodations and now that they got them, the kid stopped all meds and all therapy. Kid posted about it on Instagram. So just bc your kid didn’t benefit from it, doesn’t mean others don’t and 100% people scam the system.

They are not scamming the system!

They are showing show broken the system is, and showing how to fix it.

And guess what? SAT did and soon ACT will revamp the test to lower the time pressure. (Not enough, though.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College Board approves 94% of requests??? So there is no real investigation? Who ever said it was difficult to get extra time accommodation is full of hog wash. A 94% approval rate is not an indication that it is difficult to get approval.

College board requires proof of diagnosis for accomodations. Once you have a qualified diagnosis, who is the College Board to say that the kid's diagnosis isn't valid? Getting an evaluation to get a diagnosis is an $$$ multiday process. All of you people implying that parents and kids are faking should count your lucky stars that your kid doesn't have a learning disability or other learning challenges.

25% of the kids have a diagnosis of learning disability at a single public high school?
Most of these kids are just kids with parents who think their kids are smarter than they actually are.
Your kid should probably just take the test under the same conditions as everyone else and then explain their learning disability in their essay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one should get extra time. It is just a scam for the wealthy to push their kids above the others.

In real life you don't get extra time.

Really? My kid with ADHD got 1030 on the PSAT with a 504. Is this a score of a scam??

Our friend’s son got a 1550 with extra time and the kid was thrilled, as was the mom. She directly said it was a boatload of work for the accommodations and now that they got them, the kid stopped all meds and all therapy. Kid posted about it on Instagram. So just bc your kid didn’t benefit from it, doesn’t mean others don’t and 100% people scam the system.

Do you even hear yourself?

"Load kids up on drugs and therapy, instead of of giving them... a few minutes to think".

Really??!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one should get extra time. It is just a scam for the wealthy to push their kids above the others.

In real life you don't get extra time.

Really? My kid with ADHD got 1030 on the PSAT with a 504. Is this a score of a scam??

Our friend’s son got a 1550 with extra time and the kid was thrilled, as was the mom. She directly said it was a boatload of work for the accommodations and now that they got them, the kid stopped all meds and all therapy. Kid posted about it on Instagram. So just bc your kid didn’t benefit from it, doesn’t mean others don’t and 100% people scam the system.

Do you even hear yourself?

"Load kids up on drugs and therapy, instead of of giving them... a few minutes to think".

Really??!!

DP.

I think the drugs and the therapy was part of the scam.
They had to do it to make the diagnosis look real.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I only sent my kids to private because they have a learning disability. The number make sense to me.

+1
Our DC needed private due to his situation too. Kids that need accommodations genuinely need them. It's not some type of scam

[Anonymous]

After reading the OP and 1st page of this, I have to wonder if OP is repeatedly shadow posting as different people, or if there is s9me political lobby group at work.

I have a kid on a 504 that needs extra time. The privilege of the complaints on the first page alone are astounding. It is clear that none of these people have experience with needing a 504 and little compassion or understanding for those who do. I get that some rich people pay cash for a diagnosis, but that is not true for most of us. I had to fight hard with insurance to get my kid assessed as we don't have 5k for the assessment. Giving everyone or no one extra time is just the entitled wanting to keep first class status for themselves and attempting to us the poor to do it. Stop that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If the test designers are doing their job (test measures what it is supposed to without artifacts) then extra time could be allowed for everyone with no benefit to those without disabilities. In recent versions of SAT, they have rushed the research/ validation and can’t demonstrate the measurement equivalence of versions under different accommodation conditions.

Since 20% of the population has a reading disability- most commonly dyslexia- these numbers for extended time seem about right. Not all kids with dyslexia are diagnosed and there are many other disabilities for whom extended time is an appropriate accommodation.

The educational test publishers seem to have abandoned all professional standards in an attempt to make money.

This

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Several times teachers have encouraged us to seek an accommodation for one of our kids just because they were sometimes inattentive in class and slow on tests -but they were clearly in the range of normal and generally do quite well in school. Many other parents seemed to jump at the chance to give their kids extra time - I'm stunned by the number of kids we know who get extra time - cannot be a coincidence. The pattern is clear - get your kids extra time, have them take the ACT where that really matters. These kids are getting 34+ and into Top 50 schools with this strategy. I'm not that bothered by this because nothing in college admissions is "fair" - this is a drop in the bucket, but I'm stunned at the rationalization and lack of self-awareness I've seen from other families about how they are using the system. As my kid is struggling through test prep and learning to go faster to get the score they need, I'm telling myself I'm doing the right thing by my kid by encouraging them to learn to compensate for a weakness that will help them in the future.

I feel badly for your kid. The teachers recognize the disability but the parents are in denial. Sad.

DP. Oh please! There’s a no disability there. Arguably there does come a point when you need to game the system if everyone else is. But I feel the same as PP - how is my kid ever going to learn to push himself and focus if he never has any timed anything?

You are either the same poster, or have no experience with disability.

Also, I don't believe the person who initially said this. Also, I think someone is repeatedly posting to try to push anti-accommodation narrative for political purposes. This thread has so much bias and many of these anti-accommodations posts read like propaganda.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Several times teachers have encouraged us to seek an accommodation for one of our kids just because they were sometimes inattentive in class and slow on tests -but they were clearly in the range of normal and generally do quite well in school. Many other parents seemed to jump at the chance to give their kids extra time - I'm stunned by the number of kids we know who get extra time - cannot be a coincidence. The pattern is clear - get your kids extra time, have them take the ACT where that really matters. These kids are getting 34+ and into Top 50 schools with this strategy. I'm not that bothered by this because nothing in college admissions is "fair" - this is a drop in the bucket, but I'm stunned at the rationalization and lack of self-awareness I've seen from other families about how they are using the system. As my kid is struggling through test prep and learning to go faster to get the score they need, I'm telling myself I'm doing the right thing by my kid by encouraging them to learn to compensate for a weakness that will help them in the future.

I feel badly for your kid. The teachers recognize the disability but the parents are in denial. Sad.

DP. Oh please! There’s a no disability there. Arguably there does come a point when you need to game the system if everyone else is. But I feel the same as PP - how is my kid ever going to learn to push himself and focus if he never has any timed anything?

You are either the same poster, or have no experience with disability.

Also, I don't believe the person who initially said this. Also, I think someone is repeatedly posting to try to push anti-accommodation narrative for political purposes. This thread has so much bias and many of these anti-accommodations posts read like propaganda.

propaganda for what?

[Anonymous]

Someone earlier in the thread mentioned these kids with extra time taking ACT and getting high scores. Actually this is a thing. My ADHD did (diagnosed in 2nd grade) got extra time on the ACT and got a 36. My younger kid got a 35 on her second try. ACT is great when using extra time and especially multi day testing. Both got into top 20 schools. I know this is triggering to some of you, but I had to say it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one should get extra time. It is just a scam for the wealthy to push their kids above the others.

In real life you don't get extra time.

Really? My kid with ADHD got 1030 on the PSAT with a 504. Is this a score of a scam??

Our friend’s son got a 1550 with extra time and the kid was thrilled, as was the mom. She directly said it was a boatload of work for the accommodations and now that they got them, the kid stopped all meds and all therapy. Kid posted about it on Instagram. So just bc your kid didn’t benefit from it, doesn’t mean others don’t and 100% people scam the system.

Do you even hear yourself?

"Load kids up on drugs and therapy, instead of of giving them... a few minutes to think".

Really??!!

DP.

I think the drugs and the therapy was part of the scam.
They had to do it to make the diagnosis look real.

This. I am that poster. The mom - a physician - said, “don’t hate the player.” She said she know they have cracked down after Operation University Blues. The day the SAT results were released, she texted and said they can drop the “charade.”

So, no one was thinking it was extra time OR drugs. It was do what is necessary to get extra time (drugs, therapy) and then drop the charade. The kid also posted on Instagram the day after the SAT results came out and said he doesn’t have ADHD after all and is now med free. I saw the post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the PP who said the school recommended an accommodation for one kid that we have not taken.

My kid does not have a disability - Kid has an SAT score in the top 3% of students, but is looking for a few extra points. What i think is nuts is that there is a clear trend of kids testing in the top 5% of students who are getting extra time so they can try to get a top 1% score so they can get into one of a tiny number of schools where that is average. These kids are not dyslexic, they don't have ADHD. They are doing this to give themselves an advantage for a handful of top schools. If my kid can't get the extra points they need maybe they don't get into a school where all the kids have tippy top scores and I am fine with that. There are a lot of great schools they can go to. I actually think that's the way it's supposed to work.

if they take the test with extra time it's reported. My son is autistic and took the text with extra time the first time but then took it the second time without extra time in case the extra time became an issue. The difference in grade was marginal and he had no interest in attending a high stress school. At any rate, it should give you some comfort that extra time is reported as part of the test score.

No, flagging accommodations on a score report is illegal and is not supposed to occur. This was an issue some years back.

+1

I find it odd that someone with an autistic son who qualified for accommodations was never told this. If the score wasn’t significantly different I guess the accommodations weren’t critical, so at least there was no harm done.

From the Collge Board: “ When colleges receive SAT scores, they won’t know if a student took the SAT with accommodations.”
https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/help-center/can-my-child-take-sat-with-accommodations