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

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

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

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
We can go back and forth about individual cases but here is how I think about it on a systemic level.  Let's take the example of a kid that scores in the 95 percentile in a bunch of metrics but the 20 percentile in one and thus qualifies as disabled.

There are some people who seem to think that this kid is really a 95 percentile kid with just some sort of issue preventing his ability from being truly recognized.  That's not really accurate.  Their kid is a kid with many strengths but also clear weaknesses.

it is unfair for the weaknesses to hamper the kid to such an extent that he is not able to display his strengths.  So if he was getting a 30 percentile score on the test I would take that as evidence that the test did not truly reflect his ability.

Giving accommodations so that the kid ends up with a 95 percentile score is also not fair to all the other kids who also are hard working, who also want to go to good colleges, who also have their own strengths and weaknesses, because a 95 percentile score is ALSO not actually reflective of his abilities.  Because his abilities are in fact limited, just like everyone else's, it's just they are limited in a way that we can better measure and try to address with novel learning techniques now that we know more about the human brain.  But they still exist.  The reality is this is probably a 70 percentile kid when all these factors are considered.

And then to get on the internet and brag about how your "gifted" kid smoked all the other kids is really both myopic and cruel.  And if done on a mass scale will limit (and has limited) the enthusiasm of parents whose kids don't get extra time or a calculator but sure as shit could get higher scores with it to put up with the system you are trying to create.   [/quote]

We have cut-offs for all things. Maybe all of us would like that great parking space at the front of the store, but we don't all qualify for a handicap placard. I might have some days where I am really sore, or sick, or could otherwise use it. Maybe I'm just generally out of shape, or depressed, or have low iron, and have long (even life-long) periods of it being challenging making it to the store from the back of the parking lot. That doesn't mean I rise to the level of disabled. I don't have it as easy as the in shape, or mentally healthy, or person with perfect iron. I don't have it as bad as the person who's a paraplegic. We aren't all equal, and when we set up systems we try to make it as reasonable as possible for everyone.

And yes, there are wealthy people who can get their doctors to sign off on a handicap placard that they might be borderline for. I don't think it's reasonable to do away with all handicap spaces just because there are some people gaming the system.[/quote]

Right, but losing parking spaces near the store is not a material burden for the non-disabled.  If anything, it's beneficial because they get more exercise walking to the store.

Losing a spot at a top college to someone that you would be able to beat on a standardized test if you BOTH got a calculator and extra time is a material burden.  And of course, it's not surprising that the wealthy and well connected are at that forefront of figuring out how to make sure their kid benefits and the expense of others.

Parking spot =/= curved test.  [/quote]

Because some people have a disability that impacts how they are able to take the test.  Giving someone with no disability the same amount of time as someone with a disability, means that the person with a disability effectively has less time on the test material because they are spend much more time doing tasks ancillary to the actual test.

I don't know why everyone doesn't get a 4 function calculator, though, since I'm pretty sure someone with dyscalculia and someone without would use a calculator at about the same speed.  Of course being someone who can easily calculate in my head, it wouldn't make much difference to me while making a huge difference to the person with dyscalculia.  It would be the equivalent of magically giving a dyslexic person the ability to read at the same speed as a typical reader, thus leveling the playing field by erasing the time impact of the disability.

[/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