Claiming a disability on the SAT/ACT - have people been gaming the system?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The above is from the College Board website regarding extra time.

They have similar pages with requirements for other disabilities and other requested accommodations.

https://accommodations.collegeboard.org/documentation-guidelines/extended-time

Yeah, but I see wealthy families at our private navigate all this w help of consultants and doctors. You guys have really no idea how much this accommodation has been exploited.

[Anonymous]

I posted on the other thread about my DS who scored a 35 on the ACT using time and a half. He had accommodations since 2nd grade when he was diagnosed with ADHD and slow processing. In summer prior to 8th grade, he was tested again, and the same diagnosis held, but with the processing speed improving slightly. He continued with his accommodations through 8th grade and high school. He had time and a half to take the ACT in February of his junior year and scored a 35 -- one and done. He has always been a strong test taker and very intelligent, so it did not come as a huge surprise, and we were thrilled. That summer, in preparation for possibility of need for accommodations in college, he had his third neuro-psych test. This test actually showed a very strong improvement in processing speed. Apparently this is something that can improve as the brain develops. We were thrilled to see this improvement and realized then that perhaps the accommodations he had for the ACT may not have been needed because of the stark improvement in processing speed. Perhaps that explains the high score. We will never know, but in our case, I would not say we "gamed the system." We just got lucky.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The above is from the College Board website regarding extra time.

They have similar pages with requirements for other disabilities and other requested accommodations.

https://accommodations.collegeboard.org/documentation-guidelines/extended-time

Yeah, but I see wealthy families at our private navigate all this w help of consultants and doctors. You guys have really no idea how much this accommodation has been exploited.

That's the point, exactly. And just looking at the Singer college scandal, it's clear how easy it is to do. He went to crazy lengths to cheat the system and did so easily, and for years. How hard would getting extra time really be if you put some effort into it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Why do we have accommodations at all, except in severe cases? I understand if you're blind and need the test read to you, or you have a phsyical disability and can't easily fill in the circles on the sheet -- then extra time seems warranted.

But isn't the goal of the test to measure against other students? Why not have the same testing environment for all then? I realize some will score poorer than others, but isn't that exactly what it's trying to measure?

As an employer, if an aptitude test reflects your job duties, then it's useful to know how much you can accomplish within a fixed amount of time, because that's part of the job.

Would you make a kid who wears glasses take them off to take the test? Other kids are not allowed to have magnifiers so why let the kid with glasses wear them?

The accommodations level the playing field. I have one severe ADD kid and one non-ADD kid. The ADD kid will have to re-read the question over and over again because she forgot what she just read or will become hyper focused on a cough or something else. The non-ADD kid doesn't notice someone coughing and has normal ability to regulate her concentration. ADD is the inability to regulate focus it actually doesn't mean that they can never focus they just have less control on what they focus on.

No, I wrote that a physical disability should be accommodated, like needing to wear glasses.

It's the ADD example that I'm focusing on (no pun intended). Some people take longer than others; some do math better than others; some write better than others. These should all be reflected in the test results, and they are _except_ the "some people take longer time" -- they get accomodations.

I'm not great at math -- should I be allowed to use a calculator while the others are not? Hardly seems fair.

With ADD, there are so many factors including if the child is medicated. They can do their testing unmedicated to get the accommodations in place and then be medicated for the actual SAT.

There are so many variables to if kids should get accommodations. I don't know what the answer is but it sucks being a parent with a child with a true disorder from birth that is getting better in time but we are told in less its ADHD or ASD by the school, they will not help as they want those diagnosis to get more staff. So, instead our child goes with support at school and because we pay heavily for it outside things are very deceiving. Right now my child does well on testing but he's one of those kids that could do even better with a bit more time and support. Its hard to establish what he is capable of because of what his disorder looks like and few really understand it.

I think only extreme cases should get accommodations for things like SAT. We have a friend's child who gets heavy supports in school and I have no idea how she will function outside which makes me very sad to see she's not getting what she really needs. Parents were so focused on work arounds that no one is working on the real issues.

Many of us didn't do well on the SAT's and still went to good colleges and thrived. SAT's aren't everything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The above is from the College Board website regarding extra time.

They have similar pages with requirements for other disabilities and other requested accommodations.

https://accommodations.collegeboard.org/documentation-guidelines/extended-time

We know. We are saying if slow processing speed affects academic ability that you shouldn’t get extra time on the SAt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The above is from the College Board website regarding extra time.

They have similar pages with requirements for other disabilities and other requested accommodations.

https://accommodations.collegeboard.org/documentation-guidelines/extended-time

Yeah, but I see wealthy families at our private navigate all this w help of consultants and doctors. You guys have really no idea how much this accommodation has been exploited.

I think we do. But we also know that there are many kids who truly need this. How to stop the exploitation by wealthy and connected people, without causing harm to people with legitimate disabilities is the problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The above is from the College Board website regarding extra time.

They have similar pages with requirements for other disabilities and other requested accommodations.

https://accommodations.collegeboard.org/documentation-guidelines/extended-time

Yeah, but I see wealthy families at our private navigate all this w help of consultants and doctors. You guys have really no idea how much this accommodation has been exploited.

That's the point, exactly. And just looking at the Singer college scandal, it's clear how easy it is to do. He went to crazy lengths to cheat the system and did so easily, and for years. How hard would getting extra time really be if you put some effort into it?

If you pay enough for a neuropsych and advocates, not hard at all but for some of us the question is do we pay to fight for those supports in school or put the money into our kids in terms of tutoring and therapies to get them higher functioning which helps more in the long run.

These are not kids with SN or any types of concerns. They are average kids whose parents want them to go to specific school that they could not get into otherwise. There were colleges that would take them, but parents wanted these schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The above is from the College Board website regarding extra time.

They have similar pages with requirements for other disabilities and other requested accommodations.

https://accommodations.collegeboard.org/documentation-guidelines/extended-time

We know. We are saying if slow processing speed affects academic ability that you shouldn’t get extra time on the SAt.

Are you a neuropsychologist? Were you part of the team of doctors who updated the DSM-5?

What you think and are saying isn't really relevant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The above is from the College Board website regarding extra time.

They have similar pages with requirements for other disabilities and other requested accommodations.

https://accommodations.collegeboard.org/documentation-guidelines/extended-time

We know. We are saying if slow processing speed affects academic ability that you shouldn’t get extra time on the SAt.

Saying slow processing speed means anything as what is it based on and can it be helped- i.e. anxiety or ADHD medication, etc. If you have a slow processing speed (and mine does) it impacts everything and not just testing and is it really best to push for something higher than what your kid can really handle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The above is from the College Board website regarding extra time.

They have similar pages with requirements for other disabilities and other requested accommodations.

https://accommodations.collegeboard.org/documentation-guidelines/extended-time

Yeah, but I see wealthy families at our private navigate all this w help of consultants and doctors. You guys have really no idea how much this accommodation has been exploited.

I think we do. But we also know that there are many kids who truly need this. How to stop the exploitation by wealthy and connected people, without causing harm to people with legitimate disabilities is the problem.

Just give everyone extended time. Those who truly need it will have the time needed to finish, and those who don’t will actually finish earlier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The above is from the College Board website regarding extra time.

They have similar pages with requirements for other disabilities and other requested accommodations.

https://accommodations.collegeboard.org/documentation-guidelines/extended-time

We know. We are saying if slow processing speed affects academic ability that you shouldn’t get extra time on the SAt.

Are you a neuropsychologist? Were you part of the team of doctors who updated the DSM-5?

What you think and are saying isn't really relevant.

It isn’t a matter of DSM. This should be a college board call. With time and a half you are not getting an accurate score.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I posted on the other thread about my DS who scored a 35 on the ACT using time and a half. He had accommodations since 2nd grade when he was diagnosed with ADHD and slow processing. In summer prior to 8th grade, he was tested again, and the same diagnosis held, but with the processing speed improving slightly. He continued with his accommodations through 8th grade and high school. He had time and a half to take the ACT in February of his junior year and scored a 35 -- one and done. He has always been a strong test taker and very intelligent, so it did not come as a huge surprise, and we were thrilled. That summer, in preparation for possibility of need for accommodations in college, he had his third neuro-psych test. This test actually showed a very strong improvement in processing speed. Apparently this is something that can improve as the brain develops. We were thrilled to see this improvement and realized then that perhaps the accommodations he had for the ACT may not have been needed because of the stark improvement in processing speed. Perhaps that explains the high score. We will never know, but in our case, I would not say we "gamed the system." We just got lucky.

Actually you weren’t lucky but u gamed the system and u did it early so your kid had history that helped him later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Why do we have accommodations at all, except in severe cases? I understand if you're blind and need the test read to you, or you have a phsyical disability and can't easily fill in the circles on the sheet -- then extra time seems warranted.

But isn't the goal of the test to measure against other students? Why not have the same testing environment for all then? I realize some will score poorer than others, but isn't that exactly what it's trying to measure?

As an employer, if an aptitude test reflects your job duties, then it's useful to know how much you can accomplish within a fixed amount of time, because that's part of the job.

Would you make a kid who wears glasses take them off to take the test? Other kids are not allowed to have magnifiers so why let the kid with glasses wear them?

The accommodations level the playing field. I have one severe ADD kid and one non-ADD kid. The ADD kid will have to re-read the question over and over again because she forgot what she just read or will become hyper focused on a cough or something else. The non-ADD kid doesn't notice someone coughing and has normal ability to regulate her concentration. ADD is the inability to regulate focus it actually doesn't mean that they can never focus they just have less control on what they focus on.

No, I wrote that a physical disability should be accommodated, like needing to wear glasses.

It's the ADD example that I'm focusing on (no pun intended). Some people take longer than others; some do math better than others; some write better than others. These should all be reflected in the test results, and they are _except_ the "some people take longer time" -- they get accomodations.

I'm not great at math -- should I be allowed to use a calculator while the others are not? Hardly seems fair.

So a person who is blind gets a reader but a person with dyslexia should not?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I posted on the other thread about my DS who scored a 35 on the ACT using time and a half. He had accommodations since 2nd grade when he was diagnosed with ADHD and slow processing. In summer prior to 8th grade, he was tested again, and the same diagnosis held, but with the processing speed improving slightly. He continued with his accommodations through 8th grade and high school. He had time and a half to take the ACT in February of his junior year and scored a 35 -- one and done. He has always been a strong test taker and very intelligent, so it did not come as a huge surprise, and we were thrilled. That summer, in preparation for possibility of need for accommodations in college, he had his third neuro-psych test. This test actually showed a very strong improvement in processing speed. Apparently this is something that can improve as the brain develops. We were thrilled to see this improvement and realized then that perhaps the accommodations he had for the ACT may not have been needed because of the stark improvement in processing speed. Perhaps that explains the high score. We will never know, but in our case, I would not say we "gamed the system." We just got lucky.

no, you did not get lucky. you gamed the system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The above is from the College Board website regarding extra time.

They have similar pages with requirements for other disabilities and other requested accommodations.

https://accommodations.collegeboard.org/documentation-guidelines/extended-time

We know. We are saying if slow processing speed affects academic ability that you shouldn’t get extra time on the SAt.

Are you a neuropsychologist? Were you part of the team of doctors who updated the DSM-5?

What you think and are saying isn't really relevant.

It isn’t a matter of DSM. This should be a college board call. With time and a half you are not getting an accurate score.

U know there are also accommodations to use calculators when test doesn’t allow it? Also double time and even all day?