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[quote=Anonymous]
As a foreign parent of a high schooler with severe ADHD and low processing speed, whose generous extended time is sometimes insufficient, I am torn too.

On the one hand, in my home country, there is no extended time to speak of, accommodations for ADHD and other learning disabilities are non-existent, there are no government protections for children with disabilities in the educational system. I thought I was dreaming when, as a young TA in an American university, I was told that some students had double time, that some students could hand in assignments a little late, and that if parents complained, we had to add a few more points! I complied, but without understanding it at all.

And now my own child has double time in high school, and we've gone through 16 years of developmental pediatricians, psychologists, psychiatrists, medication, turmoil at home and at school, endless self-doubt... it seems to me that time is actually not that important compared to the accuracy and overall quality of the work. Studies have shown that giving more time to students helps them do their best work, without prejudice to their future employment. This is because usually training for jobs involves the development of self-awareness in general, and deadlines in particular, some of which aren't that  critical. A student with slow processing speed will likely not enroll in med school, where a huge work burden is placed on students, and if they do enroll and survive, they won't end up as emergency room doctors or trauma surgeons, where rapid decisions save lives. You see what I mean? The weeding out is natural and automatic, and doesn't need to be enforced artificially in a classroom setting.

However, I always resent lack of academic rigor, and that is my biggest complaint regarding the education system of this country. In my home country, the slightest inaccuracy or lack of concept development in an essay (and everything is in essay form, none of your multiple choice questions!) docks you points. A 12 out of 20 in some advanced subjects is perfectly good, and if your teacher is a hard grader, it might be the best grade in the entire class! Not so here, where parents pressure schools anytime their kids don't have straight As. My own child is the champion of the vague idea and under-developed paragraphs, and it drives me crazy :-)

So there you have it. Demand more rigor, and the deadlines won't be that important...

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