8/30/2023 0 Comments Newton south high school scandal![]() Michael Jonas has worked in journalism in Massachusetts since the early 1980s. “Typically,” the article says, a medical professional must make an assessment and conclude that a student suffers from “some condition such as anxiety or attention problems.” Sometimes it based only on a request from a parent or a teacher. Schools set their own standard for making a 504 designation. The College Board, which administers the SAT, has seen a huge surge during this time in requests for special test accommodations, nearly all of which are granted. The number of students with 504 designations nationally has tripled from 2000 to 2016, the Journal reports. That designation comes either via an Individualized Education Program, or IEP, the formal term for special education services for students with learning disabilities, or a separate category known as a 504 designation, based on a 1973 federal law. ![]() The most egregious example cited in the Journal story, which looked at data from 9,000 US schools? Newton North High School, where an eye-popping one of every three students is eligible for extra test time. The Wall Street Journal reports that, across the country, students in affluent communities are far more likely than those in lower-income districts to obtain special allowances giving them extra time for test-taking, including for the crucial SAT and ACT exams used for college admissions. Now add to that another entry: Extra time to take the SAT or ACT tests that can be the critical determinant of whether a high school student gets into a competitive college. It’s just that most well-off parents lack the deep pockets, nerve, and amoral sense of complete entitlement that led Felicity Huffman and others to literally buy their child’s way into a school.īut from extra tutoring to boost grades to summer internships and volunteer experiences that round out a student’s profile when applying for college, the children of better-off families enjoy all sorts of advantages over their poorer peers in applying to colleges. Lelling’s comment seemed laughable because it struck so many as obviously untrue: In countless ways there is a separate college admission system for the wealthy. As much as the case has blown the lid off the incredible lengths some of those with power and privilege will go to secure unwarranted - and illicit - advantages for their children, by isolating those whose efforts extended to criminal behavior, Lelling’s comment served well the much broader swath of well-off American families who enjoy all sorts of advantages in a college admission game touted as a pure meritocracy.
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