[ColoradoTree]

That parents have apparently participated in falsifying disabilities to get their children extra time on standardized testing is abhorrent. Not only because it inflates those students' scores, but also because it leads some people (including some people on this board) to call into question the entire idea of providing additional time to students with certain conditions such as ADHD, and that if kids can't do well in the time allotted, they're not going to succeed in life anyway, so let's just not worry about them. 

I'll admit, I used to be skeptical of ADHD, and parroted common lines that it was overdiagnosed, and most of these kids were probably fine, etc.  And then I had a kid with severe ADHD. He is smart, creative, and a joy to be around, but his brain is different. He has a wiring problem such that he simply cannot focus on certain tasks and bring them to completion in the same timeframe as others. He is highly distractable. That doesn't mean he lacks the intellectual horsepower to answer the questions on the test or to do well at a place like Stanford, or that with further therapy and the greater executive functioning that comes with adulthood he won't be able to better manage his ADHD to minimize its effects on his daily life. But if he's not given the opportunity to show what his brain can do in a modified testing environment, then we're setting kids like him back and putting a ceiling on where they'll be allowed to attend college. 

And sure, there will be work environments that will be better for him than others. He'll have to be mindful of that when he decides on his life's path. But he'll still need a good college degree to work at one of those better environments, too. 

I'm guessing most of us on this board have been blessed with neurotypical minds along with high native intelligence. And that's great for us. But not everyone is like that, and there are some creative, keen minds out there who have the capability to do the work well but for whom the testing environment is an exceedingly high barrier. (One of the smartest thinkers I knew in law school had terrible test anxiety but did wonderfully in all other aspects of law school, but she was not granted any testing accommodations, and her grades suffered to the point that she struggled to get a good job and no longer practices law. She was brilliant; that's a loss for all of us.) That some parents abuse the accommodation system should mean that we crack down on the cheaters, not that we end testing accommodations. In our rush to rightfully condemn those who have cheated the system, let's not lose sight of empathy for those for whom the system was devised.

[ColoradoTree]

That parents have apparently participated in falsifying disabilities to get their children extra time on standardized testing is abhorrent. Not only because it inflates those students' scores, but also because it leads some people (including some people on this board) to call into question the entire idea of providing additional time to students with certain conditions such as ADHD, and that if kids can't do well in the time allotted, they're not going to succeed in life anyway, so let's just not worry about them. 

I'll admit, I used to be skeptical of ADHD, and parroted common lines that it was overdiagnosed, and most of these kids were probably fine, etc.  And then I had a kid with severe ADHD. He is smart, creative, and a joy to be around, but his brain is different. He has a wiring problem such that he simply cannot focus on certain tasks and bring them to completion in the same timeframe as others. He is highly distractable. That doesn't mean he lacks the intellectual horsepower to answer the questions on the test or to do well at a place like Stanford, or that with further therapy and the greater executive functioning that comes with adulthood he won't be able to better manage his ADHD to minimize its effects on his daily life. But if he's not given the opportunity to show what his brain can do in a modified testing environment, then we're setting kids like him back and putting a ceiling on where they'll be allowed to attend college. 

And sure, there will be work environments that will be better for him than others. He'll have to be mindful of that when he decides on his life's path. But he'll still need a good college degree to work at one of those better environments, too. 

I'm guessing most of us on this board have been blessed with neurotypical minds along with high native intelligence. And that's great for us. But not everyone is like that, and there are some creative, keen minds out there who have the capability to do the work well but for whom the testing environment is an exceedingly high barrier. (One of the smartest thinkers I knew in law school had terrible test anxiety but did wonderfully in all other aspects of law school, but she was not granted any testing accommodations, and her grades suffered to the point that she struggled to get a good job and no longer practices law. She was brilliant; that's a loss for all of us.) That some parents abuse the accommodation system should mean that we crack down on the cheaters, not that we end testing accommodations. In our rush to rightfully condemn those who have cheated the system, let's not lose sight of empathy for those for whom the system was devised.