Wall Street Journal on rampant growth in percentage of college students with “disabilities”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless you are in a private prep school w lots of wealthy families, you have no idea the amount of gaming to get extended time and/or calculators going on for their kids. You have absolutely no idea how the whole system favors and tilts toward the wealthy.

Sorry, but you do realize that everything the world has to offer favors the wealthy. It's just how it works. Health care, education, jobs, housing, you name it. I still think wealthy people have every right to access to what they are able to pay for (i.e. a diagnosis for a LD), as long as it is legit. And you can bet the majority of diagnoses and accommodations are legitimate -- otherwise College Board and ACT would not be in business. Sorry, but your mediocre kid will have to compete against my very bright LD kid with extended time. He will probably blow him out of the water even without the time frankly lol!!!

Talking of legit, I found this great summary of a medical fad from the 17-19th century...

Female hysteria was once a common medical diagnosis for women. It is no longer recognized by medical authorities as a medical disorder, but still has lasting social implications. Its diagnosis and treatment were routine for hundreds of years in Western Europe.[1] In Western medicine hysteria was considered both common and chronic among women. The American Psychiatric Association dropped the term hysteria in 1952. Even though it was categorized as a disease, hysteria's symptoms were synonymous with normal functioning female sexuality.[1] Women considered to have it exhibited a wide array of symptoms, including faintness, nervousness, sexual desire, insomnia, fluid retention, heaviness in the abdomen, shortness of breath, irritability, loss of appetite for food or sex, and a "tendency to cause trouble".[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_hysteria

The diagnosis fell out of favor.

Are you implying that LDs will “fall out of favor”

Some of them aren't exactly ancient disorders like diabetes or asthma.

.???? Can you expand, I don’t quite get your point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless you are in a private prep school w lots of wealthy families, you have no idea the amount of gaming to get extended time and/or calculators going on for their kids. You have absolutely no idea how the whole system favors and tilts toward the wealthy.

Sorry, but you do realize that everything the world has to offer favors the wealthy. It's just how it works. Health care, education, jobs, housing, you name it. I still think wealthy people have every right to access to what they are able to pay for (i.e. a diagnosis for a LD), as long as it is legit. And you can bet the majority of diagnoses and accommodations are legitimate -- otherwise College Board and ACT would not be in business. Sorry, but your mediocre kid will have to compete against my very bright LD kid with extended time. He will probably blow him out of the water even without the time frankly lol!!!

Talking of legit, I found this great summary of a medical fad from the 17-19th century...

Female hysteria was once a common medical diagnosis for women. It is no longer recognized by medical authorities as a medical disorder, but still has lasting social implications. Its diagnosis and treatment were routine for hundreds of years in Western Europe.[1] In Western medicine hysteria was considered both common and chronic among women. The American Psychiatric Association dropped the term hysteria in 1952. Even though it was categorized as a disease, hysteria's symptoms were synonymous with normal functioning female sexuality.[1] Women considered to have it exhibited a wide array of symptoms, including faintness, nervousness, sexual desire, insomnia, fluid retention, heaviness in the abdomen, shortness of breath, irritability, loss of appetite for food or sex, and a "tendency to cause trouble".[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_hysteria

The diagnosis fell out of favor.

Are you implying that LDs will “fall out of favor”

Some of them aren't exactly ancient disorders like diabetes or asthma.

Well, we did not have MRIs in ancient times either. However, using an fMRI, you can see the difference between a neurotypical brain reading and a dyslexic brain reading.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless you are in a private prep school w lots of wealthy families, you have no idea the amount of gaming to get extended time and/or calculators going on for their kids. You have absolutely no idea how the whole system favors and tilts toward the wealthy.

Sorry, but you do realize that everything the world has to offer favors the wealthy. It's just how it works. Health care, education, jobs, housing, you name it. I still think wealthy people have every right to access to what they are able to pay for (i.e. a diagnosis for a LD), as long as it is legit. And you can bet the majority of diagnoses and accommodations are legitimate -- otherwise College Board and ACT would not be in business. Sorry, but your mediocre kid will have to compete against my very bright LD kid with extended time. He will probably blow him out of the water even without the time frankly lol!!!

Why do you assume that people who are against widespread accommodations have mediocre kids?

There is no data showing that accommodations are widespread. In 2017, less than 7% of students taking the SAT had accommodations -- including accommodations such as braille.

The 22% of students at Pomona that people are throwing around includes students suffering from depression and anxiety who do not have accommodations. Considering the number of suicide attempts at TJ, I'm shocked the percentage is actually that low. This thread is just filled with a lot of ignorant hysteria.

No one argues about the right of blind students to have special accommodations, such as to take the test in Braille. But the number of Braille reading high school students is not large. Here are the stats for all student aged up to 21 years of old. I'm assuming that SAT-taking 10/11th/12th grade students are just a fraction of the 5093 <21 year old Braille readers.

Blindness Among Children

Total number of students: 62,528
By reporting agency:
Reported by state departments of education: 52,003 (83.1%)
Reported by residential schools for the blind: 5,116 (8.2%)
Reported by rehabilitation programs: 3,860 (6.2%)
Reported by multiple disability programs: 1,549 (2.5%)

[url] By primary reading medium:
Braille readers[/url][b]: 5,093 (8.2%)
Print readers: 19,717 (31.5%)
Auditory readers: 6,686 (10.7%)
Non-readers/Symbolic Readers: 20,821 (33.3%)
Pre-readers: 10,211 (16.3%)

Source
https://nfb.org/blindness-statistics

Compare and contrast with these estimates for ADHD from the CDC:-

In 2016:

Approximately 9.4% of children 2-17 years of age (6.1 million) had ever been diagnosed with ADHD, according to parent report in 2016. [Read key findings]
Ages 2-5: Approximately 388,000 children
Ages 6-11: Approximately 2.4 million children
Ages 12-17: Approximately 3.3 million children

Source:

https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/data.html

You didn't include numbers of students with dyslexia and/or dysgraphia which Yale puts at around 20% though numbers typically identified through referral based testing are much lower.


But based on these three categories along, 7% seems like a fairly reasonable number of students receiving accommodations on the SAT and hardly a case for calling accommodations "widespread".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless you are in a private prep school w lots of wealthy families, you have no idea the amount of gaming to get extended time and/or calculators going on for their kids. You have absolutely no idea how the whole system favors and tilts toward the wealthy.

Sorry, but you do realize that everything the world has to offer favors the wealthy. It's just how it works. Health care, education, jobs, housing, you name it. I still think wealthy people have every right to access to what they are able to pay for (i.e. a diagnosis for a LD), as long as it is legit. And you can bet the majority of diagnoses and accommodations are legitimate -- otherwise College Board and ACT would not be in business. Sorry, but your mediocre kid will have to compete against my very bright LD kid with extended time. He will probably blow him out of the water even without the time frankly lol!!!

Talking of legit, I found this great summary of a medical fad from the 17-19th century...

Female hysteria was once a common medical diagnosis for women. It is no longer recognized by medical authorities as a medical disorder, but still has lasting social implications. Its diagnosis and treatment were routine for hundreds of years in Western Europe.[1] In Western medicine hysteria was considered both common and chronic among women. The American Psychiatric Association dropped the term hysteria in 1952. Even though it was categorized as a disease, hysteria's symptoms were synonymous with normal functioning female sexuality.[1] Women considered to have it exhibited a wide array of symptoms, including faintness, nervousness, sexual desire, insomnia, fluid retention, heaviness in the abdomen, shortness of breath, irritability, loss of appetite for food or sex, and a "tendency to cause trouble".[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_hysteria

The diagnosis fell out of favor.

Are you implying that LDs will “fall out of favor”

Some of them aren't exactly ancient disorders like diabetes or asthma.

The reason dyslexia and dysgraphia are not ancient disorders is that reading and writing skills weren’t requirements in ancient times.

[Anonymous]

I don't think that we should go back to a time when kids were just called dumb and ignored, but I also don't think kids who are poor at math or poor at writing should get training wheels for their tests so they can take the place of less wealthy kids who actually are good at math and writing.

If you had never seen this in action, then you don't know the DC private school set.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think that we should go back to a time when kids were just called dumb and ignored, but I also don't think kids who are poor at math or poor at writing should get training wheels for their tests so they can take the place of less wealthy kids who actually are good at math and writing.

If you had never seen this in action, then you don't know the DC private school set.

+ 10000 and not just DC - it’s also the NE

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think that we should go back to a time when kids were just called dumb and ignored, but I also don't think kids who are poor at math or poor at writing should get training wheels for their tests so they can take the place of less wealthy kids who actually are good at math and writing.

If you had never seen this in action, then you don't know the DC private school set.

+ 10000 and not just DC - it’s also the NE

Even the kids are aware who is gaming the system

http://www.bbnpov.com/?p=1250

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unless you are in a private prep school w lots of wealthy families, you have no idea the amount of gaming to get extended time and/or calculators going on for their kids. You have absolutely no idea how the whole system favors and tilts toward the wealthy.

And if you are in a private prep school, you are reaping one of the most significant advantages wealthy families have in this rigged system. I find it hard to get worked up over which prep school kids get accommodations and whether that gives them a competitive advantage vis a vis other prep school kid#.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think that we should go back to a time when kids were just called dumb and ignored, but I also don't think kids who are poor at math or poor at writing should get training wheels for their tests so they can take the place of less wealthy kids who actually are good at math and writing.

If you had never seen this in action, then you don't know the DC private school set.

You don't think we should just call kids with disabilities dumb and ignore them, but you also don't want them to get accommodations. So, yes, you do want us to go back to ignoring them, and calling them dumb. Because without accommodations, many of these children will not be able to demonstrate their intellectual abilities, nor will they be able to appropriately access the educational opportunities available to them.

Just own it. You want kids with disabilities to be dumb so your average kid looks better in comparison.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think that we should go back to a time when kids were just called dumb and ignored, but I also don't think kids who are poor at math or poor at writing should get training wheels for their tests so they can take the place of less wealthy kids who actually are good at math and writing.

If you had never seen this in action, then you don't know the DC private school set.

What about kids who are brilliant at higher level math, but do it slightly slower at basic calculations and get extended time? What about authors who excel at weaving stories and arguments but have difficulty with the physical process?
For all those of you saying that life is an IQ test, you do realize that IQ tests have different components just like life, right? Processing speed is only one facet and a minor one at that. A child with a very high verbal and spatial reasoning ability and slower processing speed may never be an emergency room physician, but I would think psychiatry and oncology are two possible specialties where depth, but not speed is required. I'm not a lawyer, but I assume there are also different fields of law that require different skill sets.

Unfortunately, at this point in time, we seem to value speed over depth, so a quick tweet or insult gets retweeted and the writer gains popularity without regard to whether or not it is accurate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think that we should go back to a time when kids were just called dumb and ignored, but I also don't think kids who are poor at math or poor at writing should get training wheels for their tests so they can take the place of less wealthy kids who actually are good at math and writing.

If you had never seen this in action, then you don't know the DC private school set.

You don't think we should just call kids with disabilities dumb and ignore them, but you also don't want them to get accommodations. So, yes, you do want us to go back to ignoring them, and calling them dumb. Because without accommodations, many of these children will not be able to demonstrate their intellectual abilities, nor will they be able to appropriately access the educational opportunities available to them.

Just own it. You want kids with disabilities to be dumb so your average kid looks better in comparison.

How did you completely fail to see the point about privilege? I'll own this: I want rich kids with disabilities to score lower than poor kids with high abilities. Sorry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think that we should go back to a time when kids were just called dumb and ignored, but I also don't think kids who are poor at math or poor at writing should get training wheels for their tests so they can take the place of less wealthy kids who actually are good at math and writing.

If you had never seen this in action, then you don't know the DC private school set.

You don't think we should just call kids with disabilities dumb and ignore them, but you also don't want them to get accommodations. So, yes, you do want us to go back to ignoring them, and calling them dumb. Because without accommodations, many of these children will not be able to demonstrate their intellectual abilities, nor will they be able to appropriately access the educational opportunities available to them.

Just own it. You want kids with disabilities to be dumb so your average kid looks better in comparison.

How did you completely fail to see the point about privilege? I'll own this: I want rich kids with disabilities to score lower than poor kids with high abilities. Sorry.

But what about poor kids with disabilities? Is it ok if they score higher than the poor kid with high abilities using accommodations?

[Anonymous]

As an infant, my daughter had crossed eyes. Strabismus is a condition that can be treated a number of ways and affects many people both rich and poor. We chose to have surgery. There are many children who don't have access to healthcare that have the same condition as my daughter. They grow up with crossed eyes. This puts them at a disadvantage because of the way they look. Fortunately we had the access and means to make that surgery happen and today she is a beautiful young woman with straight eyes. The fact that others do not have access does not mean my daughter should not have had the surgery, correct? Because the argument seems to be that wealthy people should not have an advantage over poor people. I keep hearing that over and over again. The sad truth is that poor people are disadvantaged and always will be no matter how much money we throw at the problem. It is unfortunate, but it does not mean that others should do without.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think that we should go back to a time when kids were just called dumb and ignored, but I also don't think kids who are poor at math or poor at writing should get training wheels for their tests so they can take the place of less wealthy kids who actually are good at math and writing.

If you had never seen this in action, then you don't know the DC private school set.

You don't think we should just call kids with disabilities dumb and ignore them, but you also don't want them to get accommodations. So, yes, you do want us to go back to ignoring them, and calling them dumb. Because without accommodations, many of these children will not be able to demonstrate their intellectual abilities, nor will they be able to appropriately access the educational opportunities available to them.

Just own it. You want kids with disabilities to be dumb so your average kid looks better in comparison.

How did you completely fail to see the point about privilege? I'll own this: I want rich kids with disabilities to score lower than poor kids with high abilities. Sorry.

And you want poor kids with disabilities to score lower than rich kids with high abilities.

Which means you want all kids with disabilities to score lower, so that your average kid looks better in comparison. You really hate that kids with disabilities get accommodations so that their actual abilities are tested, and not their disabilities.

[Anonymous]

I manage a college disability office. This thread has been...interesting.