My son will be in high school next year and he will be enrolled in all honors classes for his academic classes. He does however have written expression disorder and it’s very hard for him to organize his thoughts in order to write papers, long essay answers etc. However he is considered Exceptionally Gifted. My question is what impact will it have on his ability to get scholarhips if his transcripts reflect the fact that the had a resource room? I am thinking of hiring a private tutor and switching to a 504 vs. an IEP since he’s never received any remediation for his writing anyway. Thoughts?
Re: H.S. Transcripts
What kind of scholarships? I just went through this process as a parent with my own son and I don’t think it will necessarily impact on your son.
Until they do away with SATS, SATS scores are very important at most colleges. If you are hoping for merit scholarships, I’d do this. Apply to several schools but certainly include a few schools that are well within your son ‘s reach. As this scholarship game seems to be played, students of excellence who apply to less well-known colleges are often offered generous scholarships to those colleges in an effort to entice them.
Applying for financial aid is a different process but again, his resource room shouldn’t hurt him if his grades, recommendations, and SATS scores are basically fine.
Re: H.S. Transcripts
I do not think having a resource class is an impediment to earning scholarships for college. Most scholarships are based on financial need or academic acheivement–for the acheivement scholarships, decisions are not based on how the acheivement was earned; just that it exists.
Switching to an independent tutor may be a good idea; especially if you son has not learned how to do some of the things he needs to do for himself; like self-advocate. You may want to ask him what he thinks about his resource class vs a private tutor or educational coach.
If you want more information about educational vs tutors, visit my website at www.geocitites.com/successfulstudent. If your son does not need help with content in his classes, a coach is probably what you should be looking for.
If you have any more questions, please do not hesitate to write me at [email protected].
LeAnn Risch
Re: H.S. Transcripts
The resource room may be a good option for giving him a period that isn’t as demanding — but there could be better options. Sometimes a student can have a period as a “lab assistant” or a “library assistant.” The RR is generally not set up for meeting the needs of gifted students, and it’s a tough job for the teacher to do while also juggling the other folks in there. — and that’s *if* the teacher knows how to work with a gifted but challenged kiddo on those writing skills. It’s awfully easy to never quite “get around” to helping him, I’ll bet… I’d probably be guilty of it myself.
Whether the RR period would affect the ability to get scholarships would depend entirely on teh scholarship criteria. Do you know what specific scholarships you’re looking at yet?
Check with your state’s Dept. of Ed. The state of Iowa specifically states that transcripts must not have any special education designations listed.