Accommodations

 Nowhere is Yglesias' manifest "confident ignorance" more apparent than when he writes about education. In the piece above, he does make some decent points, but he begins by misunderstanding the issue with accommodations. I have seen people who had a diagnosed learning issue who probably don't really have a substantial need for that accommodation, and I have seen students who absolutely need that accommodation to do credible work. The primary accommodations typically revolve around either time, testing environment or being able to use a computer to write an essay. Some students never really use a timed accommodation, whereas others simply can't function without it.

The issue is not that universities are destroying their standards, but that we have a class system where wealthier parents can afford to get their kids tested and accommodations installed. Yglesias does touch on this when he notes the consumer-mentality that schools have to engage in. We do, at times. We jettisoned our AP program, because it "looked bad" in comparison to other "elite" schools. Pedagogically, either having APs or not really isn't a massive difference in rigor, depending on how you replace the AP, but it was a marketing issue.

Similarly, with various accommodations, we are unlikely to deny a student's parents push for some form of accommodation. We have stopped giving 100% extra time, but the reality is that parents will argue - correctly - that we have an obligation to accommodate real learning issues. Are they overprescribed? Sure. Are they inherently bogus? Nope. Dyslexia has largely disappeared as a diagnosis, and been replaced by generic ADHD diagnoses, but dyslexia pretty much does exist. The accommodation of letting someone type their essay and utilize Grammarly allows them to accurately convey what they know that would be hard without being able to type. Woodrow Wilson was dyslexic and the typewriter saved his life. He obviously went on to a Phd, president of Princeton and then the United States. I'd say that accommodating his LD issue was worth it.

There are obvious issues with college education. Whining about accommodations is missing the point.