Okay, I spoke to the teacher and she assures me that my son understands the concepts but is a slow test taker and very dileberate when he takes tests. So… he usually fails the tests because he doesn’t finish the test. what are your thoughts out there about this? Should a student be penalized if they understand but move slowly? Are we testing speed and conceptual knowledge?
It depends.
If the reason for the slow speed is having to re-figure out thigns that should be automatic, then it would be a mistake to pass that student on.
However, if his LDs mean he processes everything slowly and it just takes that much longer to get the information out, then he should have extra time as an accommodation.
I would definitely pose your question back to her: if she feels he is learning the stuff adequately, then his grade should reflect that. Simple logic.
If he is not learning the stuff, then ideally he should have the instruction changed so he did, but that rarely happens. It’s *extremely* common for instruction to move too quickly for students. (Teachers often *assume* incorrectly that the student understands the concepts - or they equate having a conceptual understanding with knowing it well enough to do it and use it. Think about how many teachers say “oh, he’s doing fine, he’ll catch up…” However, she may be right - I don’t know your son!