When Average Is Not Good Enough: Students With Learning Disabilities at Selective, Private Colleges

Area of Science:

• Psychoeducational assessment
• Higher education accessibility

Background:

• Learning disabilities disproportionately affect lower socioeconomic status adolescents.
• Students with learning disabilities are often underrepresented in selective postsecondary institutions.
• This study focuses on students with learning disabilities at a private, selective liberal arts college.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the psychoeducational functioning of students with learning disabilities receiving accommodations.
• To determine if students had objective evidence supporting their disability diagnoses and accommodations.

Main Methods:

• Psychoeducational evaluations of students receiving accommodations.
• Review of documentation supporting disability diagnoses and academic accommodations.

Main Results:

• Most students exhibited above-average cognitive abilities and average academic skills.
• Nearly all students reported academic problems but lacked objective evidence of prior difficulties or skill deficits.
• A significant number of students lacked objective evidence supporting their disability diagnoses and accommodation needs.

Conclusions:

• There is a need for increased reliance on objective, multimethod/multi-informant data in diagnostic processes.
• Current professional guidelines for documentation and decision-making in higher education may be insufficient.