Washington University students who have learning disabilities have the possibility of receiving extra time on exams, but until recently, they may have had difficulty in receiving this accommodation on the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT).
Following a lawsuit by four medical school applicants with learning disorders, a California judge ruled on Nov. 3, 2006 that the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) must rewrite its rules for granting extended time on the MCAT in order to better accommodate the learning disabled.
At Washington University, students who are verified by Cornerstone’s Disability Resources for learning disabilities may request exam accommodations, such as extra time or a private testing room. If students are approved by Cornerstone, professors are required by University rules to provide the accommodations.
Disability Resources uses the Americans with Disabilities Act when determining which students are disabled. The Act states that a person is disabled if they have a “substantial limitation” which blocks them from doing a major life activity.
Students who are granted extra time will typically receive time and a half or double the time. Approximately 250 students are currently registered as learning disabled, and 200 of these students receive accommodations.
Disability Resources allows extra time for learning disabled students on the basis that a student with dyslexia or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder may be as competent in the subject matter that is tested as any other student but may not perform well due to the testing limits.
“Many of the students who use Cornerstone’s resources are very intellectually gifted and have very high IQs, but they are impaired in one subset of intelligence,” said Christine Street, assistant director of Disability Resources. “They may have a low reading speed, for example, so they need the extra time.”
University rules permit Cornerstone the authority to require professors to grant students with disabilities extra time.
“If documentation is submitted and approved, then the professor should not refuse to give extra time on an exam,” said Street. “Most professors are quite accommodating once they have received a letter from Cornerstone.”
In 1998, Jonathan Katz, professor of physics, was threatened with dismissal for refusing to grant eight of his students extended time on exams, even though they were approved for it by Cornerstone.
Following the hearing, Katz amended his testing rules by granting unlimited time to all of his students on all subsequent exams. He did so to avoid giving extended time to only the learning disabled, a practice which he believes provides an unfair advantage.
“Giving extra time is fundamentally dishonest. Frankly, it is institutionalized cheating,” said Katz. “I have no respect for those people; I only have contempt for the people who allow extra time and the people who take advantage of it.”
Similar to Disability Resources, the testing services of the MCAT, GRE, and LSAT require that students submit an evaluation by a mental health professional. The services define disabilities using the Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines.
Two-thirds of those who take apply to have extra time on the MCAT are approved. Approximately 0.5 percent of test takers receive extended time on the MCAT for having a mental disability and typically receive time and half or double time.
Scores of those who take the GRE with extended time will not be flagged, but the scores of students who take the MCAT and LSAT with timing accommodations are reported to graduate schools as taken under nonstandard testing conditions.
“The AAMC flags those scores because of concerns regarding their comparability to scores achieved under standard testing conditions,” said an AAMC press release on Nov. 3, 2006.
The AAMC plans to appeal the California court’s decision because California law defines a disability more broadly than the federal definition. Thus, a rewrite of the rules to suit California law would result in a disparity with scores received by test-takers outside of California.
“If this court decision is upheld, students who take the MCAT in California and request accommodations would be held to a different standard than students in the rest of the country,” said Retha Sherrod, AAMC Director of Public Relations. “That outcome would not be fair, and it would undermine the usefulness of the MCAT.”