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

[Anonymous]

Obviously. The discussion had morphed. High school accommodations had been mentioned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a teacher and I have a student whose accommodation is that she never has to turn anything in on time. Ever. Won't she make a great employee someday? Just hope you're not the one who has to stay late and pick up the slack when she requests yet another extension.

You sound horrible. Hope you are not at my child's school.

I'm a professor, and I will end up with--and have ended up with--the HS student who can't turn in a paper on time. I totally empathize with the teacher who posted. Far from thinking that this teacher is horrible, I would think long and hard as a parent about the necessity of certain accommodations. Parents are not doing their kids favors in the long term by maximizing the number of accommodations they think their child may qualify for. I also worry that parents are unintentionally destroying the confidence of their own kids. Call me a horrible professor, but the fact of the matter is that there is something terribly wrong with the way in which we are raising our children such that getting a paper done on time, even after they have had a month to write it, is causing so much stress and anxiety that it can't be done without drugs or an extension.

As a parent, I can tell you why we had that accommodation.

My kid had medical issues that would cause him to miss school for a week or two. MCPS was adamant that there was no requirement that teachers post assignments, or email assignments while he was out. So he would return on Monday, to find out that there was an assignment due Wednesday that the other kids had known about for a week. The teacher would then tell him that he could only pick up the assignment at lunch time, but when he'd show up to do just that, he'd find that the teacher had gone off to purchase lunch etc . . . Waiting wasn't an option, because he'd also need to make up 2 tests and pick up assignments from 3 other teachers during the same lunch period, and attend math tutoring because he didn't understand the material that he'd missed. This was all while still recovering from a serious medical episode.

As to why not 50%, I can't imagine how that would work. Who would choose which 50%?

FWIW, I always recommend to students, if they are able to do so financially, to take a semester off from college if they need to deal with medical issues (or other serious personal issues) that require them to miss more than a week or two of school per semester. There is no shame in taking time off to care for your heath, physical or mental. College is stressful enough as it is, and students don't eat well and get enough sleep. Focus on what's important. College will be there when you return.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A different point of view: as a parent I would want to know how my child preforms compared to his classmates. No sugar-coating. No "modified" grades. I want to know what he has achieved, and know that he is on grade level. I want to know how he compares to his classmate. If he gets a C, it's a C. A real C. Now we know. If it's lower than that, we need to know. We make decisions going forward.

An accommodation and a modification are two different things. An accommodation is simply a tool to compensate for the disability (think crutches or a wheelchair for a child who cannot walk). A modification is changing the curriculum for the child (i.e. reducing the number of concepts to be learned, etc.). Something akin to not requiring a child who cannot walk to get to the second floor at all, rather than providing an elevator or assistance.

I just want to make sure the terminology is clear.

Good for you that your system works for your child. Every child is different and that would not work for some. For some kids, they need to learn how to function with their disabilities (i.e. ear rating instead of eye reading for a dyslexic child). That helps the child do the work and get through school rather than fail and find way to get through the work of life in the long run. I guess if your child can get Cs unaccommodated, that's great. Some kids would fail, but the accommodations help them learn to use their strengths to understand the curriculum. Kids who genuinely need accommodations are not gaming the system. They are just trying to figure out how they learn and what they need to be successful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A different point of view: as a parent I would want to know how my child preforms compared to his classmates. No sugar-coating. No "modified" grades. I want to know what he has achieved, and know that he is on grade level. I want to know how he compares to his classmate. If he gets a C, it's a C. A real C. Now we know. If it's lower than that, we need to know. We make decisions going forward.

I have a child with dyslexia. He is in high school. His accommodations are that he is informed of all the books he is going to need to read for the year at the beginning of summer (although occasionally things get changed and he ends up reading a book a teacher decided not to teach, or a teacher decides to teach a book he wasn't informed of), and he gets extra time on tests.

Are his grades "real" ?

When he was younger, he was provided with his assignments so he didn't have to try to write them down quickly in the last 5 seconds of class. He's outgrown needing that accommodation (teacher, professor, you guys should read this. Many kids have accommodations while they're learning how to manage their learning differences. I know it's shocking, but many kids learn to manage their areas of weakness, just like adults do).

Were his grades then "real" ?

If your child gets a concussion, should he be forced to do his work right there and then because that's when it was assigned, or is taking the time to allow him to heal absolutely unacceptable and will render his grades ... what, fake?