A letter I sent to Joan Ryan of the San Francisco Chronicle about today’s article.
Joan –
Thank you for helping to expose the hypocrisy of the College Board’s actions in limiting the opportunities of students to effectively convey their learning and understanding. As one who works with students everyday, as well as with the teachers who strive to find new ways to EXPAND opportunities for students to both learn and express their learning, I find it troubling that the nation’s effective monopolistic college sorting system continues to handicap students who do not fall within their defined traditional norm of textual learners.
The most troubling feature you mention is the Board’s refusal to allow this student—and thousands of others—to use technology to enhance their ability to be successful on the test. This extends beyond the irrefutable evidence that many of us think more clearly and process information more quickly when typing, or for that matter, speaking.
Perhaps the biggest challenge to those labeled as “learning disabled” is the reading section of the test. New technologies, such as text-to-voice capabilities, are helping our students choose the best form of “information absorption” to assure improved access to material. Tests, such as the SAT, attempt to measure reading comprehension. However, students who struggle with visual processing—and this extends far beyond just those with diagnosed dyslexia—are already at a huge disadvantage in simply acquiring the information. Comprehension should be a measure of understanding, context, and subtleties of the text, and NOT a measure of raw reading ability. All of us who work for and with students—from the classroom teacher to the College Board—should do everything in our power to help break down the barriers to learning. Technology plays a pivotal role in expanding the opportunities for students. Keyboarding, spelling and grammar prompts, text-to-speech, and speech-text are but a few tools that support both student learning and the measurement of student learning. It’s time for the College Board—and for that matter, all of us interested in supporting student learning—to do everything in their power to expand the opportunities for student success.
Thank you again for highlighting this in today’s article.
Howard
PS – my spell-check program helped me eliminate 6 misspelled words.
