***** We got the Accommodations!!!! *****
We were awarded 18.75 extra minutes. It's not much, but ought to be enough.

I thought some of you might be interested in the last letter I just sent to the folks at ged.com. We had requested accommodations for extended time and were denied, even though our daughter was officially diagnosed with dyslexia by the Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas and we provided that documentation.

I will be interested to read remarks, thoughts, and ideas.

*************

Debbie,

I went to the school Tuesday morning and discovered they have not saved any of the 504 documentation in Hannah's file. That is unfortunate, because then resolution of this issue would have been simple.

We have the law on our side. Hannah should not have to provide any more documentation than her initial diagnosis. At the end of this email I list and quote the applicable Texas and federal law.

I think that one reason there is so much resistance and confusion around giving accommodations is because most people confuse accommodations with modifications. Giving a dyslexic student accommodations means that you are giving them equal access to the information that other students have. It is exactly the same as letting blind students use braille and audio books.

When dyslexic students have more time to read, it gives them more time to decode unfamiliar words. If they are not given enough time to decode unfamiliar words, they will not have equal and fair access to the information.

Some students need audio books, text-to-speech and video in order to have equal access to information. That's the way it is for our 14 year old dyslexic son. You can give him all of the time in the world, but getting through a page of text is pretty much impossible. He can read short passages. He researches topics on Google all the time. He has never read a book though.

Accommodations provide dyslexic students with equal access to information, and also can provide them equal access to communication. My son uses speech recognition software to text. He has dysgraphia, so he needs these tools (including spell check) to write.

When dyslexic students are given equal access to information and equal access to communication (so they can communicate what they know), they have been accommodated. This is what they need.

They do not need modifications (dumbing down the information). If a dyslexic student has been given accommodations all through school, starting with Kindergarten, they will never need modifications. Unfortunately, since schools do not give accommodations from an early age, and dyslexic students do not have equal access to information and equal access to communication = we (educators and society) think they are stupid. So educators believe they need to dumb down the material for these children.

Modifications ultimately do not help students because they do not provide equal access to information and communication. When your organization changed the passing score of the GED test from 150 to 145, you were only giving modifications (dumbing down the test). It would be better to accommodate dyslexic students by changing it to a test that is not timed.

Modifications require a lot of effort on the part of the teacher, and they don't work. Accommodations are just tools. If we had these tools in place everywhere, and any student who wanted to use them, could use them, it would transform education. No student should have to prove their need for these tools. If a child doesn't need them, he/she wouldn't want to use them anyway. And what would it matter if a child who didn't need them, used them?

From Kindergarten on we need audio books, video, live action classrooms, text-to-speech, voice recognition, extended time, and artistic/creative tools. These accommodations need to be part of everything. Then you will never need modifications.

In 2011, Texas passed two bills regarding dyslexia (SB 866 and SB 967). This is a link to the website for the Interim Committee on Dyslexia and Related Disorders that collected data and held two public hearings to gather information.

http://www.senate.state.tx.us/75r/Senate/commit/c804/h2010/h080210a.htm

At the end of the year, they wrote a report. It is an important to read this report in order to understand the intent of the law.

http://www.senate.state.tx.us/75r/Senate/commit/c804/c804.InterimReport8...

Senate Bill 866 (2011)

Sec.A51.9701.AA ASSESSMENT FOR DYSLEXIA. Unless otherwise provided by law, an institution of higher education, as defined by
Section 61.003, may not reassess a student determined to have
dyslexia for the purpose of assessing the student ’s need for
accommodations until the institution of higher education
reevaluates the information obtained from previous assessments of
the student.

Senate Bill 867 (2011) Adult Licensing Examinations

(b) For each licensing examination administered by a state
agency, the agency shall provide reasonable examination
accommodations to an examinee diagnosed as having dyslexia.

The ADA Amendment Act (ADAA) of 2008 was passed by both the U.S. House and Senate, with the Senate passing it unanimously on September 11, 2008.

http://dyslexia.yale.edu/Policy_YCDC.html

Section 36.309 Examinations and Courses
Section 36.309(a) sets forth the general rule that any private entity that offers examinations or courses relating to applications, licensing, certification, or credentialing for secondary or postsecondary education, professional, or trade purposes shall offer such examinations or courses in a place and manner accessible to persons with disabilities or offer alternative accessible arrangements for such individuals.

This next link contains the scientific argument for extended time. Dyslexic individuals store words as pictures. They are also called "sight words." The speed at which a student can read a passage depends on how many of those words are stored already as picture words. This will vary between subjects. A student may be a history buff and have many history-related words stored. In contrast, a student may not care that much about science. Even though he/she knows and understands all of the material on the science test, he/she do not have as many scientific words stored as pictures. Then he/she needs extra time to decode words, and afterwards connect them to an aural vocabulary, which is much larger.

http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/dyslexia-at-mit1

Perrachione’s advisor John Gabrieli at MIT and Fumiko Hoeft of the Stanford University School of Medicine have found that the quarter to half of dyslexic children who learn to compensate for their dyslexia read by memorizing words through visual memory, increasing the activity and development of the right prefrontal cortex.

This is an essay I published several months ago that may also bring clarification.

http://caucus99percent.com/content/education-and-dyslexia-why-so-few-get-it

In conclusion, it should not be difficult to receive whatever standard accommodations we ask for on the GED test, especially since Hannah has an official diagnosis from the Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas, one of the premier hospitals in the country for their work with dyslexia.

I hope you quickly resolve this and grant Hannah extended time accommodations. There are so many wonderful things about how you have set up GED testing. You let students test one subject at a time. Your on-line site is easy to use. There are many resources and study guides. Plus, the opportunity for college credit is an amazing feature.

Why don't you take it to the next level and eliminate timed testing. You can say that test takers have to finish by the time the testing center closes. If students can schedule their test in the morning and only take one test at a time the majority of dyslexic students will be accommodated. There will be a few who need text-to-speech as well. But it would also be a simple task to include that feature in your testing software.

I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you for your help in this matter.

Sincerely,

Marilyn Hagle

Attached: SB 866, SB 867, Report of the Interim Committee on Dyslexia

Note: I edited out my cc: list.

Edited on 7/4/2016 to include an update and to fix a few typos.