When applying to take the GED with accommodations candidates must get
FORM L-15, Accommodation Request for Learning
Disabilities and/or Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity
Disorder. Form L-15 is available at your local GED
office. There is no cost for this form. It is important that you
obtain an original copy of Form L-15. The Form has blue coloring and
the letter on the first page tears away so that you can retain that
information for future reference.
Form L-15 begins with a
letter
that explains how to complete Form L-15.
The letter tells what information is needed to document a request for
accommodations due
to learning disabilities (LD) and/or Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity
Disorder-(ADHD). GEDTS' policy of accommodations
conforms to the stipulations of federal laws; i.e. ADA, Section 504 of
the
Rehabilitation Act, and IDEA. Federal laws mandate that a person
with LD and/or ADHD must have
documentation from a trained professional in the area of the stated
disability that attests to (1)
the candidate's cognitive potential to pass the GED or other test
or employment position for
which application for accommodations is made; (2)the identified
disability
as it affects information processing or the ability to focus
attention; and (3) the significantly negative impact of the
documented disability on current
academic achievement. To meet the guidelines of federal law, Form L-15
requests this
information. Form L-15 must be completed before requesting
accommodations. Accommodations will not be granted when the disability is
not documented and Form L-15 has not been completed.
If you have a documented learning disability or deficit in attention, it is important that you, or your advocate, follow the directions to complete Form L-15. Do not schedule a testing date until after Form L-15 has been completed and submitted to, and reviewed by, your GED Administrator.
If you do not have documentation of a learning disability or ADHD from a qualified professional you will need to get it. For example, a teacher in your adult basic education class may have said you have a different learning style and provided you with extra time when taking tests in the ABE class. This is a strategy that may help when taking a test but the teacher is not qualified to diagnose a specific learning disability. Testing by professionals with extensive graduate-level training in the fields of LD and ADHD is necessary. Results of this testing are required to document the disability. This testing can be expensive but there are low cost alternatives.
When you have the needed documentation, you may wish to have your ABE teacher, an advocate, your parent, or the professional who diagnosed your disability help you complete Form L-15. When Form L-15 is fully completed, return it ot the GED Testing Center. If Form L-15 has not been completed it cannot be processed. If it is fully completed your local GED office will forward your documented, Form L-15 request to the GED Administrator. The administrator will review your application.
The administrator may
You will be
sent a letter with the administrator's decision. If your request is not
approved, the administrator's letter will explain why the
request was not approved. If more information was requested, you may want
to consider attaching
further documentation such as school records and IEPs or ITPs if you
were identified as having a disability while in school. Frequently this
information has more data and test scores that can better document your
disability so that the GED administrator can approve the request. If you
have the needed information resubmit the request to your local GED office.
The request will then be forwarded to the GED Administrator for
review.
If your requested accommodations have been approved, the GED Testing Center will also be informed and you will be accommodated on the day of testing. If you believe the approved accommodations were not provided you can contact GEDTS by returning to the Accommodating Accommodations web page and clicking the email message or you can call the GED at 1-202-939-9490.
In some cases you may feel that you meet the criteria established and that the GED administrator ruled incorrectly in your case by not approving the requested accommodations. What can you do? There are steps you can follow:
For most candidates when there is a delay in the approval process it is
because Form L-15 is not correctly completed. Necessary
information is missing. When Form L-15 is not correctly completed it must
be returned and the process of requesting accommodations will begin again.
Filling in Form L-15:
Form L-15, page 1.
In Section B candidate information must be provided. This information is
necessary so that the testing center can provide needed accommodations
during testing to candidates with GEDTS approved requests.
Line 6 of section B. Release of
Information
Federal law states that disabilities must be documented. Line 6 is a
release of information section that says you give
GEDTS permission to obtain and review the needed psychological or
educational records. If your record contains information that does not
relate to a learning disability and/or ADHD you do not need to submit that
information. For example, if you had a significant emotional problem
during the past year you do not need to share that information.
Section C:
page 2
This section does not request any information. It explains the different
roles that professionals will take in providing the needed information.
It is important that the professional who administers the psychological
assessment be licensed or certified as someone who is trained to use the
required tests. Some of the test information requested on Form L-15 comes
from information gained by administering what companies who write the
tests refer to as Level C tests. These tests require advanced training.
GEDTS must follow their regulations. For this reason your classroom
teacher or a counsellor cannot administer the test.
If you have test information from when you were in school you can use this
if it was done by the school psychologist. School psychologists are
certified within each U.S. state to administer such tests.
The certifying
advocate is a person who reviews the documentation such as the
psychological and educational reports. This person attests to the fact
that the documentation seems to support a diagnosis of learning disability
or ADHD. This person could be your ABE instructor if you are in an adult
education program. The person could be an advocate. The person could also
be the psychologist or educational specialist who was part of the
diagnostic process.
The section for the certifying advocate is included on Form L-15 to
help make certain all the needed information is included before Form L-15
is submitted to the GED Administrator for review. If the needed information is not included on Form L-15, the
request will not be processed. It will be returned to you so that it can
be completed. This means the process of approving your request will
take much
longer.
In this section the specific learning disability (or disabilities) must be indicated. Most will find that the diagnosed disability is one that affects either reading, math or written language. Some may have learning disabilities such as those affecting memory or specific sequential processing. Such learning disabilities will be identified and explained under the category marked as Other.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) can be difficult to diagnose. It is not generally thought to be a learning disability since most believe it is due to a chemical, or neurotransmitter, imbalance rather than an electrical information processing dysfunction that is thought to underly a learning disability.
Diagnosis of a ADHD requires a developmental history that indicates the presence of ADHD, a DSM-IV code number (This is the number used by the American Psychiatric Association to define disabilities), and a letter from the professional who is making the diagnosis of ADHD.
The letter must clearly state the diagnosis, must attest to the fact that the candidate has the overall potential to pass the GED commensurate with a normed passing rate of 67% of current high school seniors, and must attest to the fact that the ADHD currently, significantly impacts on educational achievement. Some standardized measure of attention, such as a test like the Conners Continuous Performance Test (CPT) should also be reported.
Since ADHD is defined as a medical disability, the diagnosis can only be made by a psychiatrist, a physician, a neurologist, or a licensed clinical or school psychologist with advanced training in the diagnosis of ADHD. GEDTS follows this policy carefully. An adult basic educational instructor, for example, may suspect that you have ADHD. That instructor could write a letter stating that you have been successful in the classroom when there are no distractions. Though this letter would be helpful it would not be accepted as a diagnosis of ADHD. Only a person licensed by a governmental authority to make such a diagnosis can make a diagnosis of ADHD.
When the certifying professional submits a letter it must be on the professional's letterhead stationery. The professional's license number or certification must also be clearly defined.
ADHD is included on Form L-15 because many people who have learning
disabilities also have ADHD. Only trained professionals, however, can
determine if that is the case.
If the certifying professional is a licensed psychologist who has also
completed Part III: Sections B and C of Form L-15, the letter is not
necessary. In this case the psychologist would sign Form L-15 in Part II:
Section B providing the information requested on the form. A
psychiatrist, neurologist or physician could also simply sign and complete
Part II: Section B, if Part III: Sections B and C are complete. In this
case the psychiatrist, or the advocate, would transfer the information
from the psychological and educational reports to Form L-15 in Part III:
Sections B and C.
The GED is normed so that 67% of current high school seniors would be expected to pass. This means, in general, one who demonstrates average to above average intellectual potential could be one who is "otherwise qualified" under federal law.
GEDTS, however, views the term of average in the widest range possible under these guidelines. When an IQ of 70 or above is evident, the GED Administrator will review the accommodation request in accordance with the GED screening model. An IQ of 70 is significantly below average and significantly below where one would expect a person to pass the GED based on statistical and research evidence.
When a person has an overall measure below 70, the GED Administrator will forward the request to GEDTS in Washington, D.C. where it will be reviewed by one of the GEDTS experts.
It is important to understand, however, that the GED is not an easy test to pass. It is important to the integrity of the test that it remain normed to the 67% pass rate since it represents an educational attainment equivalent to a high school diploma. Employers and universities accept this equivalency and rely upon the standard that has been set by GEDTS.
The GEDTS policy on documentation has been reviewed extensively by experts in assessment, learning disabilities, ADHD, disability law, and advocacy. It has also been reviewed by the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Primary measures of
intelligence
Supporting, or secondary, measures of
intelligence include:
Below the box the form requests information about the Intelligence
Quotients (IQ). In the appropriate box give the Verbal IQ the Performance
IQ and the Full Scale IQ. Without these scores, the GED Administrator
must return Form L-15 and request further information. When Index scores,
such as the Verbal
Comprehension Index Score, are provided these should be included as well.
These scores help GEDTS better understand the nature of the specific
learning disability and/or ADHD.
All IQ and Index scores are presented as standard scores. This means
that
an average IQ score is 100. There is a standard deviation of 15 for most
IQ tests. This means that a significant discrepancy would be defined if
there were a difference of 15 points between index scores of the verbal
and performance IQs. The GEDTS model, however, is more inclusive than the
15 point discrepancy.
Subtests Scaled Scores
The next section requests information about subtest scores. When a
Wechsler Intelligence Test is used there are subtest scores that have a
mean of 10 and a standard deviation of 3. These subtest scores present
patterns of relative strengths and weaknesses and are important in the
diagnosis of LD and/or ADHD. The subtests are listed on Form L-15.
The scores for the subtests must be provided on Form L-15.
Some psychologists do not administer all subtests when giving a test
such as the WAIS-III.
Some
of the subtests listed do not apply to all of the Wechsler tests. Those
subtests administered; i.e., those subtests for which scaled scores are
provided, must be included on Form L-15.
If the SB-IV test is used, IQ and SB-IV index scores can also be used to
document the nature of the disability. These scores must be provided on
Form L-15.
The psychologist or educational specialist will know how to complete the
test score section of Form L-15.
Other supporting documentation
This section requests information on any other intelligence tests that may
have been given. These tests are listed above under the
supporting, or secondary tests of intelligence. Such tests may be administered to
update previous testing. They could also be administered to better
demonstrate potential in a specific area, such as nonverbal intelligence.
This section may also include other testing that more clearly defines the
nature of the information processing deficit.
Tests of Information Processing include:
Many governments also license school psychologists in private practice
to do
psychological testing. These psychologists usually have an advanced
degree in school psychology. Other states provide certification to such
psychologists. Depending upon the guidelines of each individual
state, province or territory,
GED requires certification or licensure information for those
professionals who are in private practice.
In all cases, certification or licensure of the professional must be
current and the area of specialization must relate to LD and/or ADHD.
The final notation at the bottom of page 4 asks whether a discrepancy
or
standard score model is used to determine placement for LD in the public
school systems from which the candidate's request comes. This section can
be left blank if the information is unkown.
In this section information about current educational achievement is requested. Achievement tests of education are designed to measure what has been learned as a result of exposure to learning experiences both in school and in general. Since the GED is a test that documents a high school level of learning, achievement tests that document reading, math and written language ability are necessary to document a learning disability. These tests assist in defining the nature of the learning disability and in insuring that appropriate accommodations are provided. Since accommodations could also actually interfere when they are not correctly provided GEDTS wants to be certain that all accommodations provided, are relevant to a candidate's documented disability.
Information about current educational achievement information is
obtained from well standardized
educational tests that have norms and standard scores. Those tests
approved by GEDTS as primary measures of educational achievement are
standardized and normed on diverse national populations. These tests also
have been found to be valid and reliable.
Since it is important to know how a documented
disability currently negatively impacts upon academic achievement, GEDTS
requires that the educational test results be relatively current; i.e,
within the last two years.
Since GEDTS is concerned that testing of educational achievement
provide a
clear picture of current educational achievement so that
appropriate accommodations can be provided, specific tests are
listed as primary, acceptable tests of academic achievement. Standard
test scores, based on age norms, must be provided in the blank spaces
provided on Form L-15. Many of the achievement tests are written for
children. If one of the tests listed below was not included
in previous educational testing, scores from this test must now be
included in Part III, Section C. For more information about individual
tests listed below click here.
Primary measures of educational
achievement
Secondary (or supporting)tests of educational
achievement.
Section C first asks for the date of educational testing and the name of
the test used. This information must be provided.
The form then asks for the standard broad reading, math and written
language scores. These are standard
scores. Standard scores have a mean
of 100. This means the scores in the blanks should be a number above
or below
or at 100. Percentile scores or grade equivalent scores should not be
written in these blanks.
Looking at this section you will see that each broad area is broken down
into sections. Often the person who administered the educational test
will provide these scores as well. These can be very important in
documenting LD and/or ADHD. If only the broad scores were given, however,
it is not necessary to go back to the person who administered the test to
obtain the individual scores; e.g;. the score for word identification.
If there is other supporting educational testing include it it the
appropriate space. Again please write in the standard scores.
Educational or Psychological Diagnostician
Most
frequently an
educational specialist will administer the educational tests. It is
important that this person be someone who is trained in the area of LD
and/or ADHD. Not all educational specialists will have certification.
Psychologists also administer the educational tests when they administer
the psychological tests. They can also administer them even though they
have not recently given the assessment of overall intellectual potential.
Psychologists are licensed or certified. The person who
administers the educational assessment completes Line 5 of Section C.
This section seeks information about what kinds of accommodations were made due to your disability when you were in school or in your work setting. If a teacher has suggested a particular learning strategy that has been helpful, you should may also want to explain that in this section as well.
If you were not diagnosed as having LD or ADHD while in school or previously at work, this section may be left blank.
If you were not previously diagnosed, but a current instructor has
suggested effective learning strategies that seem to work for you, you may
want to include them here.
Part IV: Section B:
Accommodations 
