Why has DS not been given extra time??

[Jodee]

Reposting from SN Education
DS has almost come to the end of the first term in Year 10 and (finally) this week I received his SEN Progress Tracker, where his "Proposed Access Arrangements" going forward is to use a Word Processor. I had chased this up at the beginning of term as he was assessed at the end of Year 9. (He was on School Action Plus before the changes).

I had been expecting DS to be given 25% extra time; he told me that when he had a History assessment recently, the other children on his table had extra time but he didn't, and as expected he didn't finish the assessment. He also didn't finish an RE assessment today.

I spoke to the SENCO today for an explanation of the Tracker form as it's the first one I've seen, instead of the IEP. I was told no extra time for DS, he can use a word processor - if he wants to!

His standardised scores are 76 for non verbal, 86 for verbal, 83 for quantative. (Below average is said to be below 85).

I have not been informed by anyone that his writing is so illegible that he requires a word processor (which we would have to provide) whereas he has difficulties processing information, needs instructions repeated and understanding checked (had speech therapy at a younger age).

As he has at least one score of 84 or less (I have been reading the new AA Regs for 2014-15), surely this qualifies DS to have the extra time? I want to go back to the SENCO and also the person who carried out the assessment with an informed argument.

thank you.

reallytired Exams are not just a test of processing speed, or knowledge, they are a test of skills and ability in a subject (not to mention the ability to understand what the mark schemes are looking for, a source of effective coping strategies for dyslexic students, strategically maximising their chances of gaining the maximum marks in the time available to them) , the more so the further a student progresses. For bright dyslexics it ironically tends to get easier to demonstrate their ability the more advanced the level of study for that reason, the quality of their ideas and analysis matter more, and their weaknesses in processing etc. less.

And whilst they may not be competing directly, they do have to get to that they are C or A finishing post don't they? The whole point is that without the extra time they face a disadvantage in demonstrating that they have that A or C level of skills and ability that universities and employers are looking for.

toohasty You clearly have never worked in accountancy, you are talking about book keeping. Most accountants I know can't do rapid accurate Arithmetic for toffee, but they do not need to, they can understand what the figures actually mean, and spot the trends, and devise strategies accordingly. I don't suppose most dyslexics would want to work as book keepers but I know plenty of Accountants and FDs who are Dyslexic. My own job required a lot of detailed numerical analysis and modelling, I loved it and was very good at it, even if I did always get someone to proof read my figures for accuracy. My DD isn't especially accurate at Maths, and numeracy isn't the area in which she has the most talent but she still got an A* at GCSE, without extra time because she there was no evidence that she needed it in that subject, because she has the logic skills and ability, and her processing skills are at the level of the lowest 9% of the population. However it is clear you do not cope well with complexity and ambiguity so you just keep churning out the same argument, one that is so simplistic as to be entirely inapplicable to reality, ad nauseum.......

TooHasty Given your line of work, I can now understand where you are coming from. I imagine that many candidates would be fully aware of their weaknesses (accurate number work would certainly be out of the question for my DS) and therefore self select and not be attracted to a career in accounting. My mildly dyslexic DP has a career that involves some numberwork and he knows he has to check his numbers very carefully. He is good at his job for many other reasons (knowledge base, liaison skills, attention to detail, etc). Perhaps if you need some "creative accounting" then a slow processing, out of the box thinking dyslexic could be the one for the job!

Poisonwoodlife "For bright dyslexics it ironically tends to get easier to demonstrate their ability the more advanced the level of study for that reason, the quality of their ideas and analysis matter more, and their weaknesses in processing etc. less." This is so true. DS can do all the A star stuff like "show original insight, creative solutions," etc but struggles with the basic stuff. In a recent end of topic chemistry test he got an A. I looked through it and the 2 or 3 questions he got wrong were the easiest on there.... one was reading a quantity on a graph!!!! I've told him to use a ruler next time and use his extra time to re-check!

Poisonwood I am an ACCA qualified accountant and have been for 25 years and I have been a finance director for nearly 10 .So I do know the difference between bookkeeping and accountancy, thank you very much!
Neither bookkeeping nor accountancy requires good mental arithmetic- calculators and software do that.

You say 'they do not need to, they can understand what the figures actually mean, and spot the trends'
that is true ,but that is often done in meetings. I have to be able to quickly digest new information, analyse it and explain it to others there and then

I want support staff who are quick thinkers I certainly don't want a person who is going to take 25% longer than everyone else!

TooHasty I want support staff who are quick thinkers I certainly don't want a person who is going to take 25% longer than everyone else!

You seem to be muddling low IQ with dyslexia. My DS is a brilliant quick thinker (verbal IQ top 99.5%). He cannot spell or plan his written work easily.

Why is it unfair not to allow all children the OPTION of extra time? There are multitude of reasons why an NT child might benefit from extra time. Let's say that we had an exam where ALL children could stay as long as they pleased would slow processing children be disadvantage? Would they actually lose any unfair advantage?

Lots of graduate recruitment schemes do their own tests so that they can measure skills that are important to them. Public exams are not considered fit for purpose.

Toohasty You say it yourself, you need people who can think quickly, not necessarily get it down on paper. As others have pointed out, you do not want human computers, you want individuals with common sense and intellect, and plenty of dyslexic candidates have those qualities. How else do you explain why Dyslexics are overrepresented in Senior Management? You must have encountered some in your career, possibly working for you, but then perhaps they did not conform to your stereotype?

So how do you tell if you have an applicant who has an A because they have worked their socks off and learnt everything by rote, or one who actually has the ability, albeit they have had extra time to take account of slow processing. Answer, you don't, so you interview them and decide if they have all the qualities you are looking for in candidate for the job. When I interviewed a candidate I was looking for someone with the qualities needed for the particular job, we went to a lot of trouble to define exactly what we were looking for, and as reallytired says we then had the evidence not just of qualifications but our own psychometric testing, and more often than not we would discard a poor result in the mental arithmetic test, especially if they scored well in Analysis of Trends and Non Verbal Reasoning. I know for a fact we recruited Dyslexic candidates because they had the qualities needed for the job, be it in Finance, Marketing or whatever.

really tired We are going in circles, we are increasingly stuck with timed exams, some people especially Gove are melded to the concept, and were only too happy to see the back of coursework and a system ever more reliant on the regurgitation of stuff. Extra time is not even being given to all those for whom it would level the playing field let alone those who are not disadvantaged....... What you are describing is essentially coursework, and it is gone RIP