Getting the incentives right in the high-stakes game of college admissions is always a challenge, but two recent changes-one in the SAT's disability policy, the other in the admissions system of the University of California-are raising eyebrows.
As part of a legal settlement, the College Board has agreed to stop "flagging" the scores of disabled students who take the SAT under special conditions or with special accommodations, Tamar Lewin reports in The New York Times. Most of those who receive such accommodations have attention deficit problems or learning disabilities like dyslexia. Their special arrangements can include extra time, a separate, quiet room to work in, and the use of a computer. One high school guidance counselor predicts that, once these scores stopped being flagged as "Scores Obtained Under Special Conditions," it will "open the floodgates to families that think they can beat the system by buying a [disability] diagnosis and getting their kid extra time." A college admissions dean observes that "the kids who are going to get most hurt are the kids who do have real disabilities." There is already evidence that accommodations are more often given to affluent youngsters; a study also found that private school students are four times as likely as public school students to receive such favored test-taking treatment. As the Times article notes, great uncertainty surrounds how much extra time on a test fairly compensates for the labored reading of someone with dyslexia or the challenges faced by a student with attention deficit disorder. Perhaps the extra time should be offered to any student who might benefit from it.
The new admissions system at the University of California is not about helping students with disabilities, but all students who have faced "life challenges." According to Daniel Golden of The Wall Street Journal, though, U.C.'s campuses seem to care more about life challenges for students from some groups than others (which, Golden notes, would be a violation of a 1996 state referendum that barred the use of preferences for racial and ethnic groups). The universities have already rejected using poverty as a measure of disadvantage because that would actually reduce the numbers of black and Hispanic students on campus. Instead, they are assigning students points for various types of disadvantage, and working hard to coach minority students in how to present their hardships. Many students who are not black or Hispanic are finding that the challenges they've faced in life are not great enough to earn them a spot in the state's top public campuses, no matter how high their grades and test scores may be.
"Abuse is feared as SAT test changes disability policy," by Tamar Lewin, The New York Times, July 15, 2002
"Barriers students faced count in university admissions process," by Daniel Golden, The Wall Street Journal, July 12, 2002 (subscribers only)