Reply to Atlantic article on college admissions

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "Atlantic article on college admissions"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/04/what-college-admissions-scandal-reveals/586468/

Atlantic article nailed it on accommodations:
The second flaw in the system was an important change to the way untimed testing is reported to the colleges. When I began the job, the SAT and the ACT offered untimed testing to students with learning disabilities, provided that they had been diagnosed by a professional. However, an asterisk appeared next to untimed scores, alerting the college that the student had taken the test without a time limit. But during my time at the school, this asterisk was found to violate the Americans With Disabilities Act, and the testing companies dropped it. Suddenly it was possible for everyone with enough money to get a diagnosis that would grant their kid two full days—instead of four hours—to take the SAT, and the colleges would never know. Today, according to Slate, “in places like Greenwich, Conn., and certain zip codes of New York City and Los Angeles, the percentage of untimed test-taking is said to be close to 50 percent.”  Taking a test under normal time limits in one of these neighborhoods is a sucker’s game—you’ve voluntarily handicapped yourself.[/quote]

No.

1) Even among students with accommodations, an untimed test is rare (and most susceptible to cheating). Most timing accommodations are time and a half; some get double time and a sliver get untimed (all of the Singer clients got untimed FWIW). Any student (save for those with a traumatic brain injury or other issue) with the faked diagnoses supposedly have ADHD. Untimed tests for ADHD are not needed in most cases.

2) Subject requests from 'high percentage areas' for extra time to higher scrutiny and a look back requirement to see what students grades and performance was before and after the 'diagnoses.' If no difference, then no accommodations (College Board denies thousands of students with disabilities extra time every year, saying there is no designated impact).

3) It does not matter that this writer thinks that the flag should be returned; it is against the Americans with Disabilities Act, a federal law. There are better ways to cut down on false diagnoses, and unneeded accommodations without hurting those who have legitimate disabilities and who were discriminated against in the old system.

[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics