Handicapped students
This is in response to “Ace the ACT? It’s easier with help; 10% of juniors in Illinois, many at top schools, are given extra time, other assistance to try to boost their test scores” (Page 1, April 29), by Tribune reporter Diane Rado. Test scores are not valid if students who are not in special education are given special accommodations. The only students who should receive this preferential treatment need to have an Individualized Education Program. This is a shameful misuse of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which was written and intended to serve only those students who are truly handicapped.
Another example that parallels this is our welfare system, which was only intended to help the truly needy; it was not intended to become a way of life for families from generation to generation or for lifetime use.
The problem in this country is that no one seems to be in charge of any program at any level of government. Criteria are ignored at will.
— Marilyn Fawell, Lombard
Students’ disabilities
Your article about accommodations for ACTs suggested that the reason that some students receive accommodations is that they are at elite schools or are white and rich. Nonsense. Accommodations are the means to leveling the playing field for students who, for some carefully diagnosed and documented reason, cannot perform without those measures; not providing accommodations to these students would be like suggesting a leg-amputee compete in a foot race without a prosthesis.
Any student who qualifies for accommodations should be entitled to them, regardless of race, income, neighborhood or school.
— Susan H. Shapiro, Chicago
Leveling the field
I am a special-education teacher and a parent of a child with a disability. Accommodations for students with disabilities do not give a child an unfair advantage. Instead they level the playing field and allow students with disabilities to show what they know without being penalized for their disability.
The reporter should have interviewed someone with a disability who has taken the ACT. Once a child has been formally identified as having a disability, that child has a plan in place that identifies what accommodations the child needs. Often children with disabilities have gaps in their abilities; each plan clearly spells out what accommodations that child is legally entitled to receive. The school psychologist then submits the paperwork to ACT.
I speak from experience when I say that having an Individualized Education Program does not guarantee that a child will receive accommodations. Many students get turned down. The next level is the appeals process. This can be a long, drawn-out process that involves numerous professionals.
Anyone who thinks that it is just a matter of getting a family doctor to write a note does not know what he or she is talking about.
Finally, I would like to say that disabilities can affect people of all intelligence levels. It is very possible to be gifted in one area and have a disability in another. Having a disability in no way makes it easier to take the ACT. Quite the opposite is true.
— Sue Rohde, Tinley Park
ACT abuse
As a college professor, I was incensed by the story highlighting the abuse in the ACT system. For so many students to have increased time and accommodation on the ACT is a travesty of justice. It is particularly strange that so many of these students live in affluent areas where medical opinions regarding learning disabilities are easy to buy.
The fact that these students are allowed these accommodations on the ACT adversely affects and seriously hinders the chances of minority students’ acceptance into state schools. It is time the General Assembly as well as the educational community look into this and put an end to these bought-and-sold accommodations.
— Ken Gaines, Chicago
Justified accommodations
I find your veiled implication that parents and students from more affluent districts are undeserving of testing accommodations to be offensive. There is nothing wrong or underhanded about a parent wanting what’s best for his or her child. If providing the student with accommodations based upon justified and legitimate diagnoses is what’s best, then that student should receive whatever accommodations his or her plan sets forth. If that includes extra time, so be it.
Measures are taken in all school districts to ensure parents, students and educators do not take advantage of a system designed to help students who truly need the help. However, your infusion of socioeconomic standing and implications of nefarious motives into the article serve no purpose other than to make parents in affluent districts appear as though they are trying to “game” the system.
— Mark Fratella, Chicago
