parents with their student walking around

ASC Parents

Welcome, parents! We're glad you're here. The Academic Success Center wants to partner with parents as students begin their transition to college. We understand there's a lot of questions, and we're here to help.

At Gordon, the Academic Success Center is the office for both disability/accessibility and academic support. We serve students through providing academic resources (e.g. study skills, tutors, one-on-one appointments with academic counselors) and academic accommodations for students with disabilities (find more information below).

What resources are available for my student to thrive academically?

The ASC provides a variety of free academic resources to students during their time at Gordon. We offer individual sessions with professional academic counselors to discuss study strategies and skills. We connect students to opportunities such as tutoring, peer study coaching, and other campus resources. English Language Learner support, and career planning. We also have a student Canvas portal providing students with practical and printable study tools, and more. Click the button below to find out more!

ACADEMIC RESOURCES

My student has a disability, what are my next steps?

At Gordon College, we seek to reflect the diverse Kingdom of God. The Academic Success Center is the designated office on campus for students who are requesting academic accommodations because of a documented disability. Students who intend to request accommodations must submit written, current documentation from a specialist. Ideally, the student should send his or her documentation to the Academic Success Center before arriving in their first semester. For information on what constitutes appropriate documentation, please refer to the links on this page.
The ASC will review submitted documentation and meet with the student to discuss reasonable accommodations.

LEARN MORE ABOUT DISABILITY/ACCESSIBILITY AT GORDON

Important information on the differences between High School and College Academic Accommodation process.

Process	K-12	College
What is the intent of the law?	Students are entitled to a free appropriate public education; qualified persons with a disability cannot be discriminated against	To ensure that qualified persons with a disability will not be discriminated against and will have access—not entitlement—to academic programs and services
Who is covered?	Infants through high-school graduates	All otherwise qualified individuals who meet entry criteria and who can document the existence of a disability as defined by the ADA and who have needs related to access
Central idea	Education is a right. Fundamental alterations of programs and services are required.	Education is an opportunity. Students must meet admissions criteria and be otherwise qualified. Students must also follow/meet other criteria of the institution such as health, character, technical standards, conduct code and course objectives. No fundamental alterations of programs and curricula are required.
Identification	Schools responsible for identifying students	Students must self-identify
Documentation	Schools responsible for testing students	Students must arrange for and pay for their own testing
Services	Schools responsible for any needed services. School must provide whatever services will help the student succeed in class. If necessary, schools must provide individualized tutoring.	Students must seek out services. Students allowed only certain accommodations in college classrooms. Students must seek out tutoring, if needed, and must pay for it if the college does not provide tutoring for non-disabled students. Individualized instruction is not likely/guaranteed.
Communication	Schools must communicate with parents at regular intervals about the student’s progress	College is not permitted to contact parents without student’s permission
Accommodation arrangements	School must develop a formal plan and it is the school’s responsibility to track student growth	Student must request and be eligible for accommodations EACH semester and the student is responsible for much of the accommodation process
Accommodation differences	Typical accommodations may include: reduced assignments (requiring students to submit less work than others), extended time on assignments, grading changes (counting daily work equal with semester tests), test format changes, repeated chances to make a passing grade	No reduced assignments, extended time on assignments is usually at the discretion of the professor, no grading changes, no test format changes other than providing equal access, no extra attempts at tests; in other words, accommodations must be reasonable and must not compromise the rigor and/or academic integrity of the class