Students should be given the opportunity to excel
It is exam week at Heritage Academy, and things are well under way. Many of our students are accommodated in a variety of ways at our school for these assessments. Depending on their needs as learners students have; unlimited time, a quiet room, exams printed on coloured paper, organisational tools, exams broken into and distributed in small chunks, and some students have scribes to write out their oral responses. These accommodations support the students to ensure the exam is a demonstration of their knowledge.
If a student does not do well in an exam because they spend all of their time trying to figure out how to spell words, or they could not organise their thoughts, then the exam is failing the student, the student is not failing the exam. It is important that when dealing with learning disabilities we break down the stereotype these exams are made easier for them. This is simply not the case, rather a process is being put in place to accommodate an area of need.
Learning disabilities are not related to intelligence, these students simply learn and present their knowledge differently than others. It is very important that schools see this difference. Students with learning disabilities are owed accommodations, and it is our job as educators and school administrators to ensure they are given every opportunity to excel.
8 Comments
My daughter has special needs and accomodation helps her to be at her best. Every child does not fit into a testing box and the sooner more realize that the better.
I agree, the idea is that we teach to the individual so it follows that we should do assessments in the same way.