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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The problem of gaming the system would be solved quickly and easily if there was a designation on the score report when a student tested with accommodations. Then only those who truly need it would be willing to accept the accommodations and send that info on to colleges. 
If a student is receiving accomodations in school, and will receive accommodations in college, why the need to hide that there were accomodations on testing? [/quote]

Because accommodations are given only if a child has a medical diagnosis, and there are laws protecting people’s private medical information.  And saying there are accommodations is meaningless, unless you disclose what accommodations were given and what the rationale was.  So schools trust the college board to make this call. Freshman retention and 4 and 6 year retention rates are a huge deal to top colleges. I think if they were seeing a significant problem with kids being admitted who could not handle the curriculum, they would stop accepting college board scores or call for a change.

There are a couple of schools of though about disclosing ADHD to colleges in the application procedure.  Some families do not disclose, because they think it will hurt their kids admissions chances.  Which to some schools it might.  But once the kid is admitted, work with disability services. Some families never disclose, and get help privately, and try to keep the kids record clean. I would like my child to disclose on his college applications.  It explains why his TJ math grades are so much lower than everything else.  I think what he has done at TJ despite his ADHD is pretty dang impressive. And I think college fit is important for my kid. I do not want him in a school that does not want to work with him. But ultimately disclosure will be his call, because he will be an adult by the time he enters college. And it is his medical information. If he does disclose, which a lot of kids do, the colleges will know he was accommodated in HS with a 504 and will strongly suspect that he had SAT accommodations. That’s fine. I want a college for him that is excited about his strengths, and feels he can succeed, as he has at TJ, with the ADHD.

But that is my call as a parent, and intimately my son’s decision as he becomes an adult.  People have a right to control the disclosure of their private medical information. [/quote]

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