Learning Disabilities & the SAT

Learning disabilities is a condition of struggles for many college students. It is a rather general term that can cover a lot of problems�problems with listening, thinking, math, speaking, reading, or writing. It could affect a person in their sensory processes or simply making sense out of information a bit more slowly than the average person (Nowicki 171). It does not mean that a person is retarded or handicapped because of cultural differences. It can be a challenge for the college-bound learning-disabled student from the point of decision through the process of taking SATs until the diploma is finally in hand. It is the purpose of this paper to discuss whether or not the SAT process is fair for the learning disabled student.

From the experience of this writer, the discrimination against a learning disabled student can be subtle, something rather hard to put your finger on. It comes from the students as well as the teachers sometimes, even though there are laws to protect the educational rights of the disabled students. Research shows that learning-disabled students need more encouragement and may have lower self-esteem and confidence in regard to academic tasks (Nowicki 171). That is true with regular schoolwork and with the SATs. Even normal ability students get very nervous before and during SAT tests, and the whole process can be a nightmare for the learning disabled students. It just seems like a system that sets a person up for failure.

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ecent years, as learning disabilities information has become more available to educators and laws come out to protect the student, more students are trying to get past the SATs and attend college. Now the percentage of learning disabled students on campuses in the United States is between 3 percent and 11 percent (Graham et al 460). A college degree greatly expands the work horizons for a handicapped student, and people with learning disabilities with a degree are more likely to hold manager jobs or other professional jobs, compared to those who give up after high school. Of the forty-nine adults who participated in the Graham study, they tended to take a little longer to earn their degree, and they changed their majors several times, as well as trying different schools (Graham et al 460). Another study mentioned in the Graham article says that of all the highly and moderately successful people with learning disabilities, 89 percent of them had completed a college degree, a good incentive to get past the SAT and keep going, even with the challenges. Another article mentions that fact that giving students with learning disabilities extra time on the SAT tends to predict greater college success than the students actually achiev

Category: Psychology - L