Claiming a disability on the SAT/ACT - have people been gaming the system?
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Anonymous
Agreed. I don’t understand why parents w accommodations are so against removing the time limit for Everyone. They seem to be coming up with, “well, my kid has this other accommodation, etc”. Have you not been reading the threads? Remove the time limits for EVERYONE. |
Anonymous
| PP, does your child go to an expensive MoCo or upper NW private? If not, you may not be aware of the extent of cheating the system that is going on. It sounds like your child needs the accommodations and you are clearly not cheating, but this misuse is real. |
Anonymous
My kid had a reader for the SSAT (and likely will when she gets to the SAT). Not a scribe, though, because she didn't need it, but she did get a computer for the essay and to write the answers in the test booklet (which were copied by the proctor onto the answer sheet). I was afraid to mention it on this thread because I can only imagine the anger over that. Meanwhile, she still only scored in the 27th percentile overall because her verbal scores were so bad, so there's that. Yah, huge advantage I got for my child. Look out Big 3 and Ivy League! I'd trade her 27th percentile for a kid who doesn't need extra time any day of the week. Along with the "advantages:" she got on the test, she got the privilege of always feeling stupid, which has affected her self esteem and caused anxiety and depression (she has been talking about suicide since 4th grade). She also got tutoring twice a week for 4 years to remediate her phonological processing disorder (which now tests in the normal range, but she still has a RAM deficit which means she reads slowly and likely always will). She spends twice as much time as the other kids in her class on her homework and works her tail off. She gets straight As and her teachers think she is fantastic. But please don't think getting extra time is a picnic. For our kids, life is a struggle that neurotypical people cannot understand until it's their child. Trust me, I would have said she of the same things you all are saying before I had a dyslexic child. For the record, I really don't care if they give other kids extra time. I'm concerned about my own doing the best she can. But please understand that some people have needs that others do not. For example, a reader and a scribe. These are documented needs. We aren't making them up. She has had an IEP for years and she would love to trade places with a child who doesn't have to work as hard. |
Anonymous
+1. It is like they are afraid that the extended time accommodation is not leveling the field but actually gave their kid a legs up so don’t want to remove the time limit. The extended time accommodation is not personalized so certain kids w extended time accommodation are getting an advantage - and before the screaming starts, I know that this does not apply to every kid. In fact some kids with extended time accommodations need longer than what they were given. So removing the time limit will help them too. |
Anonymous
But if they gave extra time to everyone, it wouldn't be "extra" time. It would be lengthening the test and, arguably, everyone's scores would still be roughly the same percentiles. The idea is that everyone has the same amount of time, so it's a level playing field. There are some kids for whom the field is not level because of disabilities, so they give them extra time to make it level. The issue is that people think others' kids fake disabilities. If that's the case, maybe they need to be tougher on giving accommodations and require more than a neurppsych exam. |
Anonymous
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Here are some articles to inject actual data into the discussion:
On how accommodations have increased especially among the affluent: https://mobile.edweek.org/c.jsp?cid=25919971&bcid=25919971&rssid=25919961&item=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.edweek.org%2Fv1%2Few%2F%3Fuuid%3D3E8BB0CA-8835-11E7-905B-8B98B3743667 https://newtriernews.org/news/2018/05/11/testing-accommodations-four-times-national-average/ https://edsurgeindependent.com/a-case-against-extended-test-time-71aa4a82148d Up to 46% of kids at some affluent high schools, according to the third article! |
Anonymous
| Honestly I hope the recent cheating scandal forces the College Boards and the schools to thinking about how to close the loophole for despicable parents who game the system. Also +1 to the poster who said they would trade accommodations for NT ability in their child any day of the week. For all you who are bitching, please know that those of us fighting for accommodations would love to have your concerns. |
Anonymous
It's the second article that is most infuriating. And it really hurts those with actual disabilities. |
Anonymous
| My daughter is someone who, compared to E.g. my son, could use more time on standardized tests. But, she doesn't have enough of a problem to have a learning diagnosis of some sort. Shouldn't she get more time to level the playing field? It's all just a spectrum of ability, and there shouldn't be an arbitrary cutoff where some kids get accommodations and others don't. I say no time limits across the board |
Anonymous
Schools who make a disproportionate number of requests on behalf of their students should have those requests subject to a higher degree of scrutiny and a look back period. While some students are 'discovered' to have an issue in high school, the majority of the students in most need of accommodations have had them since elementary or middle school at the latest. As an example, ADHD is rarely an appropriate diagnosis for an issue that was not present and a disabling issue when someone was a young child. |
Anonymous
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It would help if the tests weren't designed with timing in mind as the differentiator at the top of the scale. Simply removing time - which I would agree with, if that's the only option - seems likely to wreak havoc within the top percentiles in an unflattering way for the testing agencies.
The test needs to include more hard questions, while College Board has chosen to go in the other direction, cutting the numbers of hard questions over the past school year (this is absolutely verifiable via counting the numbers of hard questions in recent Student Answer Service reports). |
Anonymous
| This “leveling the playing field” is nonsense. I cringe when I hear it. And one of my children has an LD and qualifies for extra time. |
Anonymous
Well what do you suggest? |
Anonymous
I guess I would be fine with flagging the tests as being done with accommodations. My child has an LD, and we aren’t hiding it. If she needs accommodations on the SAT she will need them in college. I would imagine this would cut down on the gamers. And my child’s application would be more accurate. |
Anonymous
Not opposed to flagging, but should the type of accommodation be specified, e.g., large print, circle in booklet, or extended time? |