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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]As the parent of a child with disabilities, I have observed that there are some people who get it and some that don't.  This includes teachers and even some special education teachers.  In the pool of those that don't get it, some will eventually get it when they face it in someone with whom they have significant contact.  I have seen my own child convert teachers as he moved through the educational system.  That was quite a bit of pressure for him, but he did it admirably.  I wish the naysayers on this thread could meet my child and learn from him.

For the pp who posted about having a gap between the 25th and 75th percentiles.  That is still within average and the person is unlikely to get accommodations IME.  In fact, some tests have 'average' as low as the 16th percentile (one SD above and below the 50th percentile).  For my child, his lowest score on tests that tested his disability was in the 1st percentile (for him: RAN), and one test was ruled invalid because he scored so low.  On the other side, the scores in his areas of ability were in the 99th and above (eg critical thinking, vocabulary, background knowledge).  He needs the accommodations so that the tests accurately reflect his mastery of the material.  He has a reader and a scribe (in HS it was a person, in college it is electronic).  It takes more time to take a test with these, so he also gets extra time.  Technology is great but it is not always efficient.  Some children need extra time because it takes more time for them to bubble in the answer.  It has nothing to do with how much time it took them to get to that answer. I do not think the ability to bubble in answers quickly is a skill that relates to almost all real life work environments.

There will always be controversy about where the line is drawn - wherever it is drawn, because there will always be someone who just missed it and they will not be very far away from the person who just made it.  If the standardized test takers could figure how to go give more time to everyone without making others sit around longer when they don't need it and make it cost effective, then I foresee that the time component to standardized tests will go away.  It did for the Virginia SOLs.  [/quote]

I don't disagree with this but this doesn't describe 22% of kids or anywhere close, and there does need to consideration about to what extent accommodations -- particularly if they are very generous and given to a lot of kids -- distort the ability to accurately measure the ability of kids that don't receive them.

We aren't claiming that disabilities don't exist or that there aren't some people who are intellectually capable but need a different mechanism to show their skills.  The claim is that the system is being overused to the point of abused by marginal candidates who receive overly generous accommodations due to the wealth / influence of their parents as a method of trying to game the competition.  Obviously that's not the intent of every parent or the result in every case but it's a reality that needs to be addressed in order for the system to function properly.

Also, doing not super intellectual things quickly and accurately is important at literally every job.  It's not 100% of most jobs, but it absolutely matters. [/quote]

You're fixated on 22%. It's been said over and over that the Pomona numbers include students with mental health issues who aren't getting specific accommodations on classwork or exams. They might just be getting checked in on by mental health occasionally to make sure everything's going ok (a serious issue for colleges because of the risks of suicide, for example).
It's also been explained that we're learning a significant number of our students are affected by learning disabilities - including increases in being able to diagnose things like autism and dyslexia.

It is likely that in college my dyslexic child will use accommodations such as audio versions of text books, and that's likely to be it (this is based on him no longer needing additional time to complete his regular schoolwork, and him self-reporting not needing to use extended time for several of his classes when it comes to exams). He would still be covered by the percentage of students with accommodations, however. Maybe my child with dyslexia is a "marginal" case who has been receiving "overly generous accommodations" or maybe because of our wealth we've been able to get him the support he's needed in order to get to the place where he's academically successful and has the tools he needs to look like he's a (mostly) typical student. And in looking like that, people are ignoring how smart he actually is, which is why he's able to do so well _in spite of_ his dyslexia.

He's lucky. There are many children with dyslexia who are not as smart as he is, and their dyslexia will affect them more significantly. There are many children with dyslexia who were not born into families with the means or willingness to provide the tutoring and other supports that have helped him be as successful as he is. But his dyslexia is still a disability, and he still deserves the same opportunity to demonstrate his abilities as children who do not have dyslexia.

And yes, his dyslexia will likely affect his future job prospects. While he manages very well, I don't see being an editor in his future. That is not a good argument for denying him accommodations so that he can demonstrate his abilities, when it comes to his academic success. If when he's applying for jobs, he decides to apply for a position as an editor and they put a piece of work in front of him and ask him to edit it, the company will be able to determine whether his accuracy and speed at that task suits their needs. [/quote]

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