Latest news with #JillianLederman
Wall Street Journal
30-03-2025
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
A License to Cheat in Law-School Classrooms
Regarding Jillian Lederman's 'Disabilities Act Becomes a License to Cheat' (op-ed, March 21): Testing accommodations are also an engine for inequity among aspiring lawyers. Generally, a student's grade in a law-school course depends on a single final exam. Professors grade those on a strict curve, meaning only a handful of students can get top marks. These tests are thus high-stakes, zero-sum affairs in which even a slight advantage can set a student apart. Many of my peers at a premier law school are now are using testing accommodations to obtain that edge. My conservative estimate is that a fifth of students at my law school get extended time to take their exams. Some reportedly get double time—i.e., eight hours to complete an exam designed to take four.
Wall Street Journal
26-03-2025
- Wall Street Journal
How the Disabilities Act Handicaps Students
Jillian Lederman's piece on required accommodation for learning disabilities was an interesting exposé of a common ritual in higher education ('Disabilities Act Becomes a License to Cheat,' op-ed, March 21). The process occurs at the beginning of each semester, with students presenting letters from a campus office defining required accommodation. As a professor, I've gotten many of these letters—and most of the accommodations were minor and fair. But Ms. Lederman is correct about some students gaming the system. I once was presented a letter that required the student to have 1½ times the normal examination time. Yet in that particular course I knew the room remained empty for the next class period, and so I always gave any student who wanted it extra time. I explained to the student that I couldn't accommodate him as the examination time was unlimited. He claimed that was grossly unfair and that I was required to limit the rest of the class to a single period and give him the extra time.
