On June 17, 2007, the SF Chronicle published an article, The Test From Hell, by Kathryn Olney, on how the College Board in effect discriminates against students with learning disabilities.
The key points are that
- The number of children with diagnosed learning disabilities and school-based accommodations (Individual Education Plans and 504 plans) has been increasing.
- A significant portion, up to 25%, of college-bound students have IEPs and 504 plans, including accommodations in school (such as extended time on tests, use of computers rather than handwritten work, and so on)
- The College Board, who administer SAT tests, seem to have capped the percentage of tests given with accommodations at about 2%
- In 2006, the College Board acted secretly and unilaterally to drop the number of testing accommodations granted, by about 20%
- Robert Shaeffer of FairTest. org,: "Kids with
legitimate needs are not being treated fairly or legally."
- Some authorities feel that "the real way to level the playing field is for ETS to give the test
untimed, over two days, and with an ETS-supplied computer," for all students.
[Educational consultant Pat] Henery is spearheading a
broad-based Bay Area coalition of pediatricians, psychologists, educational
therapists, speech and language pathologists and parents, called Opt Out. They
hope to convince Bay Area high schools to begin to accept a few students
without the SSAT. "We've decided that if we can build a ground-swell at the
high school level, it will be easier to sell the idea to public and private
California colleges." FairTest has toyed with the idea of a class-action
lawsuit against the board with Oakland's Disability Rights Advocates, the
organization that first sued SAT in order to remove the asterisk that disclosed
to colleges that a student had taken the test under non traditional conditions.
Right now, it maintains a list of (mostly) private colleges on its Web site
that don't require the SAT.
Opt Out does not seem to have a website, yet. Pat Henery can be reached 4l5-44l-2366.
Law Office of Jo Anne Simon
356 Fulton Street, Third Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11201
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