another article SAT/ACT - ?LD? students

The title of this article rubs me the wrong way.
Heaven knows our kids would see anything about the SATs as easy!!!
Our kids will struggle through school and then be looked at with a gimlet
eye - are you faking? are you trying to pull one over on us? hey, are
you really LD?
aaaaaarrrrrggggghhhh!
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www.suntimes.com
Chicago

SAT system easier to beat?

July 22, 2002
BY CHRIS FUSCO STAFF REPORTER
A high school student feigns a learning disability to get more time on the SAT or ACT.
His score improves, giving him a better chance of being admitted to the college of his choice.
It happens across the country and in the Chicago area, educators say, often with help from parents who want their kids to get the best education possible. And a new policy by the College Board, which administers the SAT, has high schools and colleges worried that more high schoolers will begin seeking time extensions, making it more difficult to separate deserving applicants from fakes.
Nationwide, about 2 percent of students who take the SAT and ACT get extra time after submitting detailed applications that include input from doctors and high school counselors, statistics from the testing agencies show.
A total of 26,258 students—including 242 from Illinois—obtained SAT time extensions last year, and 30,328 did so on the ACT. The reasons ranged from blindness and other physical disabilities to dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Educators fear more students will claim they’re disabled in the future because of the College Board’s decision to stop notifying college admissions officials about students who get more time on the SAT.
Starting in fall 2003, the board will stop flagging their results, which now are marked “nonstandard administration.” In the majority of cases, such students get an extra 90 minutes on the three-hour exam.
The College Board’s decision, part of a legal settlement, is prompting ACT Inc. to re-evaluate its policy of flagging extended-time testers, spokesman Ken Gullette said. It will continue the practice for now.
Advocates for the disabled are hailing the College Board’s decision, part of a legal settlement, as a major step toward righting a discriminatory wrong. College officials worry it might spark families—especially affluent ones—to push doctors to have students diagnosed with ADHD and other learning disabilities.
“There will be families, in their anxiety about college admissions, that will attempt to do anything to advantage the candidate,” said Rebecca Dixon, associate provost of enrollment at Northwestern University. “Parents can be insistent, so I’m sure some schools will have to succumb to the pressure.”
The extensions became a hot-button issue two years ago, when a California state audit prompted by a Los Angeles Times investigation showed students getting extra time on the SAT came predominantly from high schools in wealthy, white suburbs.
That’s a trend most educators believe plays out nationally.
However, “The fact [suburban districts] are accommodating kids doesn’t mean abuse,” said Beth Robinson, who oversees disabled-student testing for the College Board. “They have better libraries and better playing fields. My sense is they’re going to accommodate their kids with disabilities, also.
“The thing is, we all know there are always going to be people who find a way to beat the system.”
At Deerfield and Highland Park high schools in the north suburbs, counselors have become accustomed to dealing with time-extension requests, said Susan Jorjorian, director of special education for Township High School District 113.
The district has a detailed screening process, and students get rejected “several times a year,” she said, because they do not show a history of having learning problems and do not have the medical documentation required to file applications with the SAT and ACT.
Still, when asked if students in the north suburban district have been able to game the system, Jorjorian responded, “I’m sure they have. But, in my mind, the number of students who have justly benefitted from this process far outweigh the number of kids who have beat the system.”
As for a correlation between extra time and higher scores, an ACT study of 1,400 students who took the test first without claiming a disability and repeated it under a time extension improved their scores three points on average.

DISABILITY TALLY
On Oct. 1, 2003, as part of a legal settlement with disabilities rights advocates, the College Board, which runs the SAT, will stop flagging score reports of students who get extra time to take the test because they are disabled. The ACT will continue to flag such tests for now.
Here’s a breakdown of the 30,328 students who got ACT time extensions last year. Comparable figures for the SAT were not available:
*Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: 3,918 (13 percent)
*Other learning disabilities: 15,222 (50 percent)
*Physical disabilities: 2,336 (8 percent)
*Psychological, cognitive disabilities: 1,326 (4 percent)
*Unspecified disabilities: 7,526 (25 percent)
Sources: ACT Inc., College Board