<p>It’s being reported that 10% (30,000 of the 300,00) taking the SAT test are mysteriously requiring “special accomodations” even though the national average of learning disabilities does not exceed 2% of the population - and these same students are getting double or triple the time for the SAT 11 tests (required at most top universities and colleges)</p>
<p>That would translate into as many (8% of 300,000) or 24,000 using a possibly questionably “larning disabled” tag - to game the system</p>
<p>Where is the outrage by students who are in the process of applying to competitive colleges - and may soon end up on the reject or wait list pile - simply because another student in effect took a rigged test?</p>
<p>Citing a real world example, can anyone really now honestly say that extra time on that SAT 11 Chemistry Test given last month would not have been a HUGE advantage -when most test takers are reporting time was a major problem?</p>
<p>That’s just one example - as this new tidal wave of “learning disabled” students is getting double or triple time ON ALL EXAMS w/o the colleges (since 2003) ever knowing who and who was not given extra time</p>
<p>An excerpt from the ABC News report last spring:</p>
<p>(begin quote) </p>
<p>“There are a lot of hired guns out there, there are a lot of psychologists who you can pay a lot of money to and get a murky diagnosis of subtle learning issues,” Greenberg said. “‘Subtle’ is a word that is really a red flag. ‘Executive functioning’ is another red flag, something that is kind of a new thing.” </p>
<p>Other high school guidance counselors told ABC News that “diagnosis shopping” has given rise to a cottage industry of doctors and medical professionals, all willing to give students the documentation they need to get the extra test time they want. </p>
<p>Concentrated Privilege</p>
<p>The natural proportion of learning disabilities should be somewhere around 2 percent, the College Board said, but at some elite schools, up to 46 percent of students receive special accommodations to take the tests, including extra time.</p>
<p>Harvard graduate student and researcher Sam Abrams conducted a study on students in Washington, D.C, where the number of students receiving accommodations is more than three times the national average.</p>
<p>“We see outright overperformance scores that, on average, in the disability population, would qualify you without question to the elite universities,” Abrams said. “This strikes me as very compelling evidence that people are taking advantage of the system in Washington, D.C.” </p>
<p>Abrams believes the abuse has become more frequent since fall 2003, when the College Board stopped “flagging” the scores of students who took the SAT with extra time. Since the “flag” was dropped, colleges have no way of knowing that the test was taken under nonstandard conditions. Abrams and his co-author, Miriam Freedman, believe this has made it more appealing for students who don’t need the extra time to seek it out. </p>
<p>(end quote)</p>
<p>see: <a href=“Does Loophole Give Rich Kids More Time on SAT? - ABC News”>http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=1787712&page=2</a></p>
<p>Unforturtunately for honest students, the problem is even bigger than described above - that is because even in the cases where kids legitimately have (for example) ADD/HD - the question then is WHY should the “accomodation” itself seem to invariably end up being adding huge amounts of time to complete an exam? This is highly likely to be an overcompensation even for kids actually having legitimate “learning disabilities”</p>
<p>The point is even among the 2% of real “learning disabilities” - there is a significant debate as to exactly how and why time itself (when we know its stacks the deck against non LD test takers) - is considered such a perfect fix</p>
<p>Note that original lawsuit which in 2003 ended up causing ETS not to flag LD test takers (i.e the one that caused colleges to end up blind whether a student did or did not have special accomodations) - was itself brought by a student who literally (physically) had no hands. So obviously he was truly learning disabled, and or course many thousands are also “learning disabled” and they probably do need extra time -although the question why exactly colleges should not actually know which test takers got extra time - is really still not resolved</p>
<p>The inventiveness of the “learning disabled” tag today is now almost unlimited. Lets say you have to read paragraphs in reading sections twice to completely understand them enough to answer question (probably 95% of the literate people on the planet) - then look for “processing” learning disabilities and find the right expert to agree. The list is nearly endless</p>
<p>Greenwich. CT with somewhere between 30 to 50% getting double or triple time, and Wayland, MA with 12% given extra time, District of Columibia with 3 to 4 times the normal rate - anyone actually believe the SAT is NOT being gamed by huge amounts of students?</p>