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Anonymous wrote:I’m another poster with wretched eye sight who thinks of accommodations as analogous to eyeglasses. That said, I think time-pressured standardized tests that don’t cover material as difficult as that presented in many high schools are a poor way of evaluating/ranking kids for college.

Er..it isn’t. You have a choice to wear them or not. What if you weren’t given a choice while others who gamed the system were? Would u be happy? Would u think it is fair?

You ignored the second half of what I wrote. I don’t think speed should be what we’re testing in this context (just as I don’t think vision is what we should be testing on a reading exam). So I’d remove time pressure generally. But that’s a less profitable model ....

I think processing speed is a perfectly appropriate thing to measure for college admissions. I don't think it's the only thing that matters, but it is a legitimate metric of academic capability.

Not within these kind of parameters or wrt these kinds of tasks. In college, students can put in widely varying amounts of time on the same assignment. And what’s generally being tested isn’t speed but depth of knowledge and nuance (and/or ability to bring knowledge to bear in solving a problem or understanding a situation). Answering multiple choice questions quickly and accurately isn’t really a good measure of a student’s ability to do that kind of work.

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Anonymous wrote:Well, so, if your child attends one of these schools who accepts a lot of kids with accommodations is anyone worried about their kid pairing off with a severely ADHD kid? After reading the relationship and family relationship forums & observing married friends it seems difficult to be married to someone with severe ADHD. Parenting and chores, keeping a job - there seem to be many common issues.

I have ADHD, my husband has ADHD and both my kids have ADHD. I was diagnosed in law school back in the 90s wHen adult ADHD was not a thing and what you looked for was hyperactivity. My son in ES but it was obvious very early. My husband because he saw so much of himself in our son, and how much treatment helped him. DD would likely still be undiagnosed in MS but deep into treatment for anxiety if we did not have a strong family history and know what to look for. PP is right. Bright girls with ADHD compensate until the hit a breaking point. But compensating and constantly trying to keep things from falling through the cracks can cause a lot of anxiety. Both DD and I effectively treat anxiety with Adderall, which has the exact opposite effect in no-ADHD kids.

We are a pretty well functioning family. Boring, nerdy. No affairs. No substance abuse. Same jobs for both parents for more than a decade. House in a good school district in NOVA. Both DH and I compensate, although we compensate differently. Sometime I will show you my master family calender on google in a different color for each member of the family, with the same colors on the calender on the fridge. Did I mention ADHD makes women anxious? I think we function pretty well. I think it helps that all 4 of us understand each other, and have mutually agreed to be kind about genuine screwups in things like turning homework in. Or forgetting to email about a play date.

We teach our kids that ADHD is a medical condition. And like many medical conditions, it can be managed so that it does not interfere with your life. We feel strongly about aggressively managing the kids ADHD. And being proactive with our own. They are on medication, but they also took Strategies for Success in MS, and my HS student has an executive functioning coach, which helps a lot. DD gets one whether she wants it or not at the start of HS. At various times, both kids have done short term work with therapists. DD on anxiety. DS when we ran into internet use issues. I watch Gradebook closely. And if you have a missing assignment, I own your iPhone until it is turned in.

In an ideal world, they go to college without needing accommodations, but we choose colleges that work well with their learning needs. See also: not a huge university with big lectures. DS uses extended time in math only, because that is where he needs extended time. He has extended time on the college board, but says he only uses it on the math section. Which is fine. The scores are good. DD might or might not need them when we get there. I would love to not have to go through the hassle of applying. But I will if I need to.

I didn’t choose to have ADHD. I didn’t choose to have ADHD kids. But they are amazing and are going to go great places. And I definitely would not take the ADHD out. It’s part of who they are. They would not be them without the ADHD piece, and it is both annoying and hysterical when DD trails off in the middle of a conversation because... hey butterfly! Sigh.

I guess I chose to marry a man with ADHD. So you have me there. But I would not undo the decision. He is smart and kind and funny and a wonderful dad and has a great job and...you get the point. I feel very lucky to have married him. 20 years ago.

Maybe this isn’t what you wanted. But ADHD is what you make of it. In our family, we all have brown hair, and we all love Lord of the Rings and we all have ADHD. We all have a sense of humor about the inevitable mixups. And there is a fair amount of teasing about them.

I think you would be lucky to be one of us. But I’m partial.

Sorry, sorry. I know this thread is all about accommodations v. no accommodations crowd bashing each other, but can I hijack this thread for a second and ask a question to pp? You mention your son has an executive functioning coach. How does this work? Does he see him/her weekly, just a couple times to get him organized? How do you go about finding one?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m another poster with wretched eye sight who thinks of accommodations as analogous to eyeglasses. That said, I think time-pressured standardized tests that don’t cover material as difficult as that presented in many high schools are a poor way of evaluating/ranking kids for college.

Er..it isn’t. You have a choice to wear them or not. What if you weren’t given a choice while others who gamed the system were? Would u be happy? Would u think it is fair?

You ignored the second half of what I wrote. I don’t think speed should be what we’re testing in this context (just as I don’t think vision is what we should be testing on a reading exam). So I’d remove time pressure generally. But that’s a less profitable model ....

I think processing speed is a perfectly appropriate thing to measure for college admissions. I don't think it's the only thing that matters, but it is a legitimate metric of academic capability.

Not within these kind of parameters or wrt these kinds of tasks. In college, students can put in widely varying amounts of time on the same assignment. And what’s generally being tested isn’t speed but depth of knowledge and nuance (and/or ability to bring knowledge to bear in solving a problem or understanding a situation). Answering multiple choice questions quickly and accurately isn’t really a good measure of a student’s ability to do that kind of work.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m another poster with wretched eye sight who thinks of accommodations as analogous to eyeglasses. That said, I think time-pressured standardized tests that don’t cover material as difficult as that presented in many high schools are a poor way of evaluating/ranking kids for college.

Er..it isn’t. You have a choice to wear them or not. What if you weren’t given a choice while others who gamed the system were? Would u be happy? Would u think it is fair?

You ignored the second half of what I wrote. I don’t think speed should be what we’re testing in this context (just as I don’t think vision is what we should be testing on a reading exam). So I’d remove time pressure generally. But that’s a less profitable model ....

I think processing speed is a perfectly appropriate thing to measure for college admissions. I don't think it's the only thing that matters, but it is a legitimate metric of academic capability.

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Anonymous wrote:I actually don't think the extra time accommodations are a problem. I think the problem is how many parents are raising young adults to believe they are incompetent and can't make their way in the world without special accommodations. It's so hard to start life thinking there is something this wrong with you.

Actually it is raising kids to think it is okay to cheat the system and that they are entitled to....

Why is it cheating? Sad that people thing this because they are upset their kids can't compete agains kids with special needs. And now they want extra time because they are so incompetent. Sad.

I think it's pretty clear that many of us don't think these kids actually have special needs at all. If 20-25% of the kids at a very selective school have this "need," it's more common than being left-handed or blond, and just about as deserving of special treatment.

I'm near sighted. It's really common to be near sighted. Using your "logic" I shouldn't be allowed to wear glasses, because there are enough of us that it's not deserving of special treatment.

Those of us who don't need extra time on tests and assignments, don't need note takers, don't need those accommodations aren't losing out on anything. Just like people who don't need to wear glasses aren't missing out on anything by not wearing glasses.

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Anonymous wrote:One of the 'accomodations' on the Virginia SOLs was that there were kids with dyslexia or something who had an adult READ them the Reading Comprehension Test! There was a 'gifted' nonreader and nonwriter in my child's third grade class! You know. He was 'brilliant ' except that he couldn't lread or write! This went on until 8th grade. I wonder whatever happened to him. Should he become a teacher? A brain sirgeon? Have someone reading him his med school textbooks? Strange!

People who are blind "read" with their fingers. People who are blind or dyslexic "read" with their ears. It is how they acquire language. Why is it so important to you if the information goes into the brain through the eyes instead of ears or fingers?

If you would like to educate yourself, I recommend reading Sally Shaywitz's book "Overcoming Dyslexia" and Maryann Wolf's "Proust and the Squid".

The reading SOL is a comprehension test and that can be done with a reader. Students with dyslexia often get audio and electronic text books so that they can access the material. Comprehension is not usually the issue for a person with dyslexia (although sometimes it is co-morbid).

Anonymous wrote:
No. The better analogy is allowing someone to take a vision test with glasses! The ability to do work quickly and correctly is what standardized tests measure (in part). Allowing someone extra time to "fix careless errors" defeats the entire purpose.