Why should a student need to have an identifyable learning disability to recieve additional time for exams? (house, school districts)

[jbunniii]

Why not dispense with testing altogether and give everybody A's and trophies?

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by jbunniii

Why not dispense with testing altogether and give everybody A's and trophies?

Better idea: dispense with testing and stop comparing people with one another. Focus on individuality instead?

[Snort]

I bet a school psychologist could handle this question.
I wonder if there are any around.

[Tulemutt]

Not that are sane.

[Ceece]

Most tests are usually not created to be a "beat the clock" kind of thing anyway. If you know what's what you can usually do what you need to score well. They are "timed" to be scheduled, to test memorization (times tables or whatnot) and mostly just to give an end time for everyone because, you know, life.

People with learning disabilities MAY need extra time just to get to the point of the question and just to allow them to get their ideas out. It's not about giving people more time to answer more questions or triple check their answers.

[Tulemutt]

Wondering why so many assume that people who don't function rapid fire under pressure of timed constraints are "learning disabled"? As I wrote before, many seriously intelligent, creative, problem-solving people shut down under different kinds of pressure.

I knew a very sharp guy in the military, in Vietnam, who was in a very basic non-specialized rate. He was a demon under fire when the chips were down and the pressure was unbearable for most people. Highly decorated. Couldn't pass the tests in electronics schools, even though he understood the material. Just had a thing about clocks I guess.

I trusted him to literally make decisions about my life. And here I am writing this 46 years later.

Some of you sound like you think the world should be composed of nothing but STEM automatons who operate like little timers. Cheese Louise. Zombie world.

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

Originally Posted by Tulemutt

Wondering why so many assume that people who don't function rapid fire under pressure of timed constraints are "learning disabled"? As I wrote before, many seriously intelligent, creative, problem-solving people shut down under different kinds of pressure.

I knew a very sharp guy in the military, in Vietnam, who was in a very basic non-specialized rate. He was a demon under fire when the chips were down and the pressure was unbearable for most people. Highly decorated. Couldn't pass the tests in electronics schools, even though he understood the material. Just had a thing about clocks I guess.

I trusted him to literally make decisions about my life. And here I am writing this 46 years later.

Some of you sound like you think the world should be composed of nothing but STEM automatons who operate like little timers. Cheese Louise. Zombie world.

What do you propose?

[Sully1981]

Originally Posted by ringwise

So how long do you think this "extra time" should be? A week? A year? 10 years?

The main purpose of testing SHOULD be to grade people's performance. If you take five times as long to process something as someone else, why should they be punished for it? Because, that's what you're essentially doing.

Once you get into the business world, you see how long you'll last after telling your boss that your more careful and slow, and have a right to take all the time you feel you need to get the job done.

I spoke with a Mathematics instructor here at my local collage and he said "I have difficultly building tests that fit into the time-frame of my class's and often have to cut out valuable material"

His job is to teach students Mathematics.

Now if his ability to gather information about his students is being blurred by a time constraint, this is a problem.

There are many good teaching strategies for encouraging fluency in math, but the ones that are effective are those that simultaneously develop number sense, which is the flexible use and understanding of numbers and quantities without instilling fear and anxiety.

Beyond this fear and anxiety, timed tests also convey strong and negative messages about math, suggesting that math ability is measured by working quickly, rather than thinking deeply and carefully, the hallmark of high-level mathematical thinking.

I agree that being punctual with respect to time is an important skill in its own right out in the "business world". I get that. That being said, its not a measure of a students knowledge of that spicific material. When universities look at a students transcripts and consider them for admission, they are considering this persons knowledge of these individual subjects. Not how well they work under pressure or how fast they can take a test.

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

Originally Posted by Sully1981

When universities look at a students transcripts and consider them for admission, they are considering this persons knowledge of these individual subjects. Not how well they work under pressure or how fast they can take a test.

Unfortunately, that's not true. The university will look at SAT, GRE, LSAT scores, based on timed tests. They'll look at grades, which are usually determined by timed tests. And timed tests include the ability to think fast and perform under pressure.

I know what you are saying and it is a shame that the entire educational system is based on test scores, which are based on timed tests.

But, how do we change this system? It's enormous.

[skelaki]

Originally Posted by LoriBee62

I agree. I have worked with people who took forever to get a task done. Rarely, it's because they were slower thinkers. More often it was because they didn't have the capability of quickly deciphering what is important and what is not. They get bogged down in the details to the point of paralysis.

None of those people lasted very long at the company I work for.

IMO, children who take too long to complete exams should be identified so they can receive additional tutoring in how to sort through a problem quickly. Just giving them more time does nothing to solve the underlying problem.

Excellent point!

Basically, instead of bringing the standards down, which is done way to often these days in my opinipn, help those that need it to come up to the standard (in this case a time allotment).