<p>Story in this morning's Chicago Tribune, stating how the practice of requesting extra time & accommodations in advance to complete the ACT for challenged students is becoming increasingly popular in some high-income suburban HS districts outside Chicago.</p>
<p>I had thought about posting this to the ACT/SAT forum, but it really addresses parents' lack of morals & ethics more than the testing itself. While the story doesn't come right out and say it, it is evident that parents of students in these highly-competitive districts are gaming the system for every conceivable angle so their child can get as close to that perfect 36 score on their ACT test as possible. Looks to be fairly easy to do--they find a doctor friend that can misdiagnose their David--a great student in his own right that carries a 4.0 GPA--with ADHD. And then have an official in the HS to let it pass through with a nod and a wink. Sure, why not, who's it hurting? Hard to prove, right? And the kid's actually taking the test--he'll just have an extra couple hours--or days--to finish it. That's a huge advantage. </p>
<p>These are the same types that thought nothing of working the system by contacting Illinois politicians and UIUC trustees to get their child an edge in admissions at that school a few years back. That 'clout scandal' was highly publicized & it cost the UIUC President his job, but it worked & those kids are now graduating.</p>
<p>More than anything else, it just bugs me that some amoral parents will go to these lengths to give their kid an edge, oblivious (maybe) of the lesson it teaches them. It almost begs the question to other CC parents--and we're a darn competitive bunch here--as to how far you would go over that ethical line to heighten your kid's chances in test scores, college admissions, job interviews, etc.</p>
<p>Look-I'm not naive. I know it's a tough world out there. It just would be nice if more parents had ethics as a top priority in teaching their children. Or maybe it's just a function of these parents treating their kids as an extension of themselves, a statistical trophy rather than as an upstanding person.</p>
<p>I considered getting accommodations for my son. Due to his Tourette’s he has HORRIBLE handwriting, and I know it will be reflected in his essay score. But it was a major hassle since we have elected not to get school accommodations for him during the regular school day. It takes planning at least a year in advance and lots of letters and documentation. If abuses are being conducted (and I’m not at all doubting they are), this must be a very structured and premeditated affair.</p>
<p>again with the ignorance about what extra time does and does not do for a student with verified, documented learning disabilities. (Those descriptors need to be there for legitimacy.) If the descriptors are not true, then the extra time granted is not genuinely needed and is the fault of poor oversight/review by the testing agency.</p>
<p>If the descriptors are true, the extra time does not give the student </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>because all extra time does for a diagnosed LD student is to allow them the opportunity to do the best they would/could do without time restrictions, which will never be equivalent to what a non-LD student can do; it will always fall short. As someone who has both expertise and personal experience in this field, the difference extra time provides is very small.</p>
<p>All that ramps and wheelchairs do for the physically disabled is allow them to join the crowd of seekers for opportunity. They remain paralyzed or compromised, and will likely forever have to find and develop countless compensations for their continued reduced opportunities and challenges. But without the ramp and the wheelchair they are shut out from maximizing their genuine abilities.</p>
<p>“David” may have been getting classroom accomodations already that you are unaware of. He may have legitimate diagnosis in his file that go back to early childhood. It is possible that he was NOT a 4.0 student in grade school and middle school (in fact, he may have struggled in those years and caused his parents and teachers a lot of anguish and frustration), but via specifically identified accomodations related to his disability, he has succeeded in high school. He may work much harder than you kid does on the same assignment because of his disability, even with accomodations. No parent chooses for their kid to have a disability, whether it is visible to others or not. To assume that asking for a disability accomodation on standardized tests is amoral is pretty offensive to parents of kids who have legitimate disabilities. To assume that a kid with high intelligence cannot have a legitimate disability that requires accomodations is also incorrect. There are a few parents who game the system for kids who do not have a legitimate diagnosis, but those numbers are pretty small.</p>
<p>I hear all the time from high school counselors that special accommodations on the SAT are now so much harder to wangle now than they used to be that even students who truly need them don’t get them.</p>
<p>It seems to me that a simple solution would be to give all SAT and ACT test-takers as much time as they want … up to several extra hours. Most kids won’t want the additional time (at least not much of it) and will be happy to blow out of the test center when they’re finished. But I think that if no student feels that he or she is racing the clock, colleges will get more meaningful scores. </p>
<p>This solution won’t help students who need other sorts of accommodations, but the extended-time one is the accommodation that is most commonly abused.</p>
<p>I second Intparent opinion. It’s quite possible to have high GPA and ADD at the same time. These kids just super intelligent and VERY hard working. I personally know such a child. As a matter of fact, a pediatric psychiatrist told me that the high IQ is one of the reason ADD could be diagnosed late, since the child might be able to compensate for the short attention span with his/her high intelligence.</p>
<p>So I wouldn’t be too quick to judge others. The diagnosis could be quite legitimate.</p>
<p>I am definitely NOT doubting the need for accommodations for legitimate LD students–it is truly a godsend for them in leveling the playing field. But in the article the seemingly skewed percentage of accommodations in these high-income districts is one of two things: 1) an accurate diagnosis of learning disabilities on a higher level because of better insurance, or 2) borderline fraud for competitive parents wanting to get their child into the best school possible based on higher statistics.</p>
<p>Knowing a number of parents from high-income, highly competitive suburban Chicago districts, this distresses me no end - but surprises me not a whit. I doubt that this mindset is the norm - but I am not surprised that there are parents that will attempt it.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It also does not surprise me that there are school officials who will facilitate it. When you have school superintendents in some of these wealthy suburban making salaries in the mid-six-figures, and when those superintendents serve largely at the pleasure of school boards made up of wealthy parents, there certainly will be pressure to be “accommodating” in borderline cases.</p>
<p>I find it more troubling that, according to the article, “At many Chicago public schools, no students got accommodations.” How is that even possible? That’s a story worth investigating. Affluent parents may well be more informed about the rights of LD students, and certainly have more in the way of resources for dealing with educational bureaucracies. </p>
<p>
While this scenario probably is played out on occasion, I don’t buy that many MDs or hs administrators are willing to lie, wink, and nod as a matter of course.</p>
<p>Another angle: it is to the school’s advantage to have as many students score as high on the ACT as possible. In Illinois, the ACT is the cornerstone of the battery of tests that high school juniors take every year to measure the school’s NCLB compliance - and the school’s ACT average is part of the school report cards that get mailed to every parent every year.</p>
<p>The same issues arise here with the SAT. I know a number of high scoring kids who got accommodations and get them for all of their tests. Really a whole lot of them. Find it hard that a selective high school have so many such kids, but that is the reality. My son was a bit put out as he has his issues too, one of which is that he is slow and steady on a test and could really use extra time. Seeing some kids who seem to be perfectly fine but have some psychologist sign off on the extra time, is really a bit of a bitter taste, But you don’t know who really needs these things and who really pushed the envelope to get the accommodations and really should not have qualified. It’s just one of those things. </p>
<p>I personally know a young man who did get a number of great merit offers due to his high test scores and he did get the time accommodation. He does well anyways and did not need the accommodation–finished the test way before normal time and used the extra time to redo it but admitted fully that it made it less stressful for him and gave him the option of double checking. He is a good student and good test taker anyways and this extra just gave him a bit more of an advantage. It does make me burn a bit because I firmly believe I could have gotten the same if I had been hell bent on doing so, for my kids. And, yes, the schools are very accommodating and willing to cooperate for this sort of thing.</p>
<p>^How unbelievably ignorant. You are implying that only low achievers can have learning disabilities. Because of the way the system works, it can be very difficult to get LDs identified unless you have a lot of money. Furthermore, for high IQ kids, LDs may not get identified until much later due to the ability to overcompensate for a longer time with their strengths. I have a “gifted” IQ but a visual working memory in the 2%ile. It was diagnosed in 11th grade. I got extra time. I didn’t cheat. The testing cost $2,000. My state provided no testing.</p>
<p>I agree with Sally_Rubenstone, except that all test takers should get the extra time and a half, not unlimited time. However, getting ACT accommodations truly is very difficult and has become more so recently.</p>
<p>Annasdad is right. These ‘school report cards’ are also very important indirectly in determining property values for these tony North Shore (Chicago) suburbs, where home values peaked in 2006 (many at or near seven figures), got a subsequent 30-40% price haircut, and are competitively trying to come back, a little at a time. You don’t think that has at least a little to do with it?</p>
<p>swattiechick, please read the article itself & the posts afterwards before deciphering my implications. I totally agree about the LD diagnoses not being on equal footing because of socioeconomics. Frazzled1’s point is right on–some Chicago districts had NO students that got accommodations–that’s just wrong, and is a direct result of the city’s broken school system, unfortunately.</p>
<p>But my original point as OP was how this system can definitely be abused by parents of non-LD or fake-LD students that don’t necessarily need it, and are exploiting it for competitive advantage. That kind of thing begs for karma to track them down.</p>
<p>The reason the accommodations are given is that those students asking for the extended time feel they need it in order to be on a level playing field with those students who don’t have that extended time. If they all got the extended time, they would then be handicapped. My son is a slow but precise thinker. He could most often “Beat out” a more quick minded ADD kid if my son had the same time constraints as that kid. Since he has a number of peers with whom he’s been in school since 2nd grade, I pretty much know how things work with these kids. So if they all got extended time, then he would still keep his leg up over this kids because of his superior ability to focus as compared to their inability to do so. With extended time, my son can’t finish, and those kids can finish in their scattsy way they think, but go back and recheck. Most of them have the speed to finish a test very quickly. They just can’t focus and need the time to go back. </p>
<p>These are the kids, by the way, who tend to be very smart, quick minded talented kids, and they have documented issues with ADHD since they were very young. Where the crackdown seems to be with the SAT are those whose parents “suddenly” want that diagnosis when the kid is in highschool. However, it seems to me, that there are an awful lot of ADHD kids, especially boys, who have this issue from grade school. Some of them who have managed to get better control as they got older were specifically told by counselors that the diagnosis should be kept through high school to get the extended time accommodations.</p>
<p>Some kids, especially very bright kids, don’t hit a wall academically until they get to high school where the expectations are higher. There probably are some kids who don’t get diagnosed until high school who do have legitimate disabilities, but they managed to compensate for a lot of years until they get to more demanding high school classes. Just because a diagnosis was made in high school does not mean that it is not legitimate.</p>
<p>It is no surprise that some districts have no requests for accomodations, but that is likely a result of lack of money in their families to pay for testing that some kids desparately need, and a lack of resources in the schools themselves (testing and counseling) that could help more kids get accomodations they should have. I do not see this whole story and the associated comments as about something that shouldn’t be happening in more affluent areas, but more as a commentary on what is not being done for less affluent kids.</p>
<p>I can’t comment on how “easy” it is…although I did see the paperwork that the school submitted to ACT and I had to sign-off on it a month ago. The dates of testing and psychologist names and a current signature, a copy of the IEP and dates of previously signed IEPs and a whole bunch of stuff that dated back to first grade related to his dyslexia was attached. All my son’s testing was initiated and managed by the school system from first grade on. The school submitted and compiled everything, I did not. I can’t understand how you can game the system or a school can pass this stuff through with a wink and a nod unless you’ve been gaming the system since elementary school. I don’t mind if they tighten up the requirements, if you have a true LD kid you’ve got 2 feet or more of documentation, testing, psychiatry reports, IEPs going waaay back in the kid’s school file and it’s no “secret” that you have a special need kid even if they have a high GPA. I’ve had teachers stop me and tell me they didn’t get much training in college and how interesting to have my son in their class. It’s quite obvious what is going on with a true high IQ LD kid. What’s unfortunate is that colleges and unis place so much emphasis on these timed standardized tests which is a clear disadvantage to a smart LD who has spent years and years challenged by the disability. Go ahead ACT, tighten up the requirements. I don’t “talk alot” about his issue in my postings, but I’d give anything in the world for my son not to have his LD…anything in the world.</p>
<p>BTW there’s no hope that my son will score in the 30s on the reading, no chance whatsoever. Accommodations brings him closer to fiftieth percentile which is miraculous considering he started elementary school at 99th percentile math, 13th percentile reading. Math in the 30s sure with or without accommodations. Reading not in a million years.</p>
<p>I know, OhioMom. I’ve known a dozen ADD kids since they were 7 years old through their first year of college. About half of them did not make it through their first year of college, from what I can tell so far. They got into the colleges based largely on their SAT scores, but could not do the work. They all have high cognitive ability as they would not have been in the K-12 schools they attended. Their biggest problem has been their inability to organize and think ahead. Most of the kids I know do fine on the standardized tests even without the extra time, but the extra time makes a difference. </p>
<p>THis is just a small sample that I personally know. It just seems to me that there are an awful lot of kids needing the extra accommodations around here. I have no recommendations as how to change the system and though I wonder about this whole situation, am not in the position to have a useful opinion about it.</p>
<p>^
That’s my son. ADD, IQ - all in very superior range except in processing which is in the
2 percentile. As momofthreeboys wrote, I too wish my son did not have his LD. He does have accommodations for the PSAT/SAT/AP. He took the PSAT last Fall, and did so poorly, I hoped there had been a mistake and he was not given the extra time. Alas, that was not the case. He told me he used all his extra time, sigh. The plan is for him to be tutored and to also take the ACT. Fingers crossed!</p>