How are the accomodations, Miss von Huben?
or
Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it.

I was regaling the young folk with tales of the good ol’ days. Back when we took SATs and ACTs without Kaplan prep sessions, special accomodations and counseling to help us work through our test anxiety. We paid our fees and showed up with two #2 pencils. And we liked it. I don’t recall any parents being overly concerned. Nor do I remember any of my friends getting all worked up into frazzle. Those days are over.

One of my daughters has some sort of vague learning disability. I haven’t been able to figure out exactly what it is...but she is given ‘accomodations’ during exams. Such as extra time. In signing up for the ACTs her LRC teacher asked for her to recieve accomodations.

Extra time. And the opportunity to take the exam in a less crowded environment. (I am slightly aghast at why she needs extra time. I’ll try to trust the LRC teacher on this one. But wouldn’t we all like extra time? And what about the purging of the massive analogy sections of this test. I would have to request that I take the test in analogies only. Even the math. Mrs. von Huben only works in analogies.)

She showed up for the ACTs yesterday to find out that the request for extra time had been refused. But to accomodate the need for a less crowded environment, she was put in a room alone with a proctor. The results were not encouraging. (Though having a limited time did truncate her suffering.) I, someone who performs better on tests than in real life, would find a bit of performance anxiety in being the only student under the proctor’s eye. And what about the poor proctor?

Today she had some sort of Prairie State assessment tests. I think it went well. She didn’t think I was amusing when I asked if the first question was, “Why is Illinois called the Prairies State?”

And after all the #2 pencil work, a three day week-end.