<p>At my child's high school I found out a couple of months ago that several kids have been given diagnoses that enable them to get extra time on AP tests as well as the SAT and ACT. I know these kids and all are well-to-do and none of them suffer from these alleged ailments. Natch these kids have all leveraged the extra time to get better test scores. </p>
<p>Anybody else seeing this type of behavior?</p>
<p>It seems a bit presumptuous to state that you know that “none of them suffer from these alleged ailments”. Do you have insight into their home life? It’s usually quite difficult to actually acquire a diagnosis to allow for extra time on exams, so it’s not like any normal student can “game the system” by pretending to have a mental illness. You also say they have leveraged the extra time to get better scores, but how do you know the better scores aren’t just their “normalized” scores after they’ve been placed on an even playing level with their peers?</p>
<p>Somehow I doubt that so many are gaming the system. It was near impossible for me to get extra time, and I have an obvious physical disability/motor impairment.</p>
<p>I have a guy in my class that does the same. He always gets more time on tests because he has aspergers’ but ends up scoring almost perfect everytime because of that.</p>
<p>You are making a whole lot of assumptions here without any real knowledge. I’m sorry your student didn’t do as well as these other kids on his/her tests but you really don’t know that they are “gaming” the system.</p>
<p>It’s always odd to me how many parents are so concerned about what other people’s kids are doing. I never had the energy to pay that much attention to anyone but my own and sometimes even that was exhausting ;).</p>
<p>@walkingdead1480, I have Aspergers too and that kid you are talking about in that scenario is pathetic in my opinion. Aspergers in general make you more analytical than most people, thus he is just abusing the system. Anyways, Aspergers is not capable of making you “mentally impaired” it is the way he thinks about it to use it to his advantage :/</p>
<p>My son is applying for taking College Board tests later in the day due to a sleep disorder. Yes, there are people who buck the system, but no, it is NOT any of your business. He seems “fine” but he has a sleep disorder which has significantly impacted his schoolwork.</p>
<p>I teach college, and there are several kids with Asperger’s, some which you would never detect and others who you would say “well, duh”.</p>
<p>Still none of your business.</p>
<p>I also have to tell cubandad that it is VERY difficult to get extended time with the SAT, almost impossible with the ACT this year. A recent diagnosis of even something as simple as ADD/ADHD would not qualify; with the ACT, they are now requiring a diagnosis that goes back way before high school and usually they require documentation of medication required as well. Comprehensive neuropsych evals are required. Indeed, there is no doubt that families with money could find a way to “buy” a diagnosis – but they would have had to have started this process back in 7th grade or earlier… and in most cases, their child would have to be put on medication and show evidence of ongoing accommodations in high school as well.</p>
<p>I do believe that some people abuse the system, but I can promise you that in the last year or two, both the SAT and the ACT have gotten extremely rough in their grants. I read some numbers that something like as many as 25% of students at some of the wealthier Los Angeles private schools have requested “accommodations”; only 1 in 7 has been granted.</p>
<p>Until you have walked in the shoes of some of these kids, I would ask that you not judge. A child can appear “normal” and yet you have no idea how hard they work, or the bumps in the road that they navigate.</p>
<p>My brain actually thinks slower and i know a few other kids that also have permission to take the test. I only go over by like 10 minutes so I don’t consider myself abusing the system. And i still don’t get perfect scores.</p>
<p>Give your kid adderall</p>
<p>not srs</p>
<p>I can assure you that I am very familiar with these children. They have been in my home dozens of times over the past five to six years. I am friendly with their parents. I’ve had multiple conversations with them. They are my child’s close friends. In some cases the parents have told me that they have written papers, essays and the like for their children. </p>
<p>My child attends a small private school which will graduate no more than 100 seniors. When no fewer than 5 to 6 of them have extra time you’ll excuse me for being suspicious.</p>
<p>Well hopefully the room with their parents at college so they can write their papers there too.</p>
<p>^LOL, they might^</p>
<p>Have to agree that it is not easy to get accommodations. The documented disability has to be substantiated, there has to be indication that it “substantially limits” some major life area" (am paraphrasing the ADA terminology), that unless this is a temporary problem (broken arm, etc) that they have a history of the disability, that it has qualified for accommodations in the school and that the student has used the accommodations in the school for at least several months. So please, do not assume you “know” these kids, their medical, mental health status or learning styles just because they have been in your home.</p>
<p>I know it is not easy and I know that in the case of these kids that they have been given doctors notes that enabled them to qualify for accommodations in their school for some time. This did not pop up their junior year. </p>
<p>Look I’m just interested to hear if anybody has seen this type of an attempt to gain an advantage. </p>
<p>I know how well I know these young people. In some of the cases they have traveled with our family and in others they have stayed with us when their parents traveled.</p>
<p>
I don’t see how that qualifies you to second guess whatever diagnosis they might have. My D has non-verbal learning disability. Unless you had some expertise in the field, you couldn’t perceive her disability or understand how it impacts her academic effort no matter how many times she stayed with you. I recommend you don’t count other peoples’ money and don’t evaluate other peoples’ children.
But what’s the point? Are you’re looking to expose a scandal, or trying to understand why own kid didn’t do as well as they did? I’m sure that out there in the universe of kids who have testing accommodations there are some who don’t legitimately qualify. There are also kids who got internships in high school because their parents knew the right people. On the other hand there are kids who will never excel in school because their mothers were drunk throughout their pregnancies. Life–still not fair.</p>
<p>Did any of you skeptics think of how lucky you are not to have to deal with these diagnoses as part of your day to day life? Getting extra time on a test is only going to get one so far in life. These students still have to make it through college and life in general with their diagnosed issues. So before you get jealous or think they are getting ahead somehow, consider how lucky you are.</p>
<p>Maybe some people abuse it, but they’d have to go through some extreme efforts: a diagnosis, an evaluation that demonstrates the learning problem, and accommodations at school. It’s hard to get past all those professionals, and these professionals have access to confidential information that others do not. I would say that someone without the expertise and the information isn’t in a position to judge.</p>
<p>At my niece’s private school, it was reportedly not uncommon for parents to spend $15K or so getting a “diagnosis” so that their kid could get extra time at the school. It was reportedly MUCH less common for those students to subsequently get extra time on the ACT/SAT. The school chose to be lenient; the others, not.</p>
<p>If you have the time and the money, it’s not as hard to get the diagnosis as you would think. There’s always someone willing to give you whatever diagnosis you want, for a fee. There are doctors who making a living handing out scripts for painkillers, there are doctors who make a living handing out diagnoses to accommodate rich parents in whatever it is they’re after, you just have to know who to ask. On the whole, I would say it’s much more lucrative, not to mention less risky, to hand out the diagnoses and scripts to rich kids than it is to operate a “pain clinic”.</p>
<p>If I really wanted to, I could have sought extra time for my kids, with a real problem, but I don’t play by that set of standards. I make them operate in the real world and learn to deal with their problems, because eventually, they’ll be required to do that. Maybe it’s naive, because it could certainly could have helped D with her test score, and I certainly see some rather strange accommodations given to some of her peers, but I’m old school, unless it’s really, really severe, I still insist on learning to adapt, not make the world adapt to me. </p>
<p>For those who truly have issues that need accommodation, I have no problem, and wouldn’t trade with you. Life isn’t fair. For those who are gaming the system, I hope that karma is a biotch. You know which one you are.</p>