Although the charter of Westside School states that the student body m

Question

Although the charter of Westside School states that the student body must include some students with special educational needs, no students with learning disabilities have yet enrolled in the school. Therefore, the school is currently in violation of its charter.

The conclusion of the argument follows logically if which one of the following is assumed?

The conclusion of the argument follows logically if which one of the following is assumed?

(A) All students with learning disabilities have special educational needs.
(B) The school currently has no students with learning disabilities.
(C) The school should enroll students with special educational needs.
(D) The only students with special educational needs are students with learning disabilities.
(E) The school’s charter cannot be modified in order to avoid its being violated.

ahabib · Answer

Rephrasing this: 
Student body should be composed of some special needs students, and since no new ones are joining, the school will be in violation of the charter.

Prethink:
We need to rule out the possibility of the school already having special needs students.

(A) All students with learning disabilities have special educational needs. 
Tempting because there IS a leap in the argument.. But even if this were needed, what if the student body already consisted of special needs students? We need to rule out that possibility

(B) The school currently has no students with learning disabilities. 
Aligns with what we're looking for, although I'll admit that equating Special Needs & Learning Disabilities is making me uneasy.

If we take the opposite of this statement then the argument collapses, which is what we expect with assumption questions.

(C) The school  should  enroll students with special educational needs. 
What they should/shouldn't do is irrelevant

(D) The only students with special educational needs are students with learning disabilities. 
Whether there is only one kind of student that meets the criteria of "Special Needs" is irrelevant

(E) The school’s charter cannot be modified in order to avoid its being violated. 
We're interested in completing the argument, not resolving the issue.. This is irrelevant

Render · Answer

C  is just repeating the facts mentioned in the premise. Negating  C  contradicts the premise, which is impossible.

Your strategy re assumption questions works if negating the answer contradicts  the conclusion. , not the premise.

RastogiSarthak99 · Answer

This is a tricky one. I wad down to A and D and picked D. The reason why A is wrong is because it is shifting the relationship between disabilities and special education needs.

ahabib · Answer

My main problem here was misunderstanding the prompt :/

I interpreted "No students have yet enrolled" as "No students have enrolled this year"

I gotta be more precise in my reading!

Posted from my mobile device

rosalynd · Answer

(B) is simply restating a premise already given in the argument, which does not help in determining the assumption. Additionally, the argument is concerned with the enrollment of students with special educational needs, not just students with learning disabilities. Therefore, even if the school has no students with learning disabilities currently, it does not necessarily mean that it is in compliance with its charter, as there could be other students with special educational needs that the school has failed to enroll.

Option (D), on the other hand, states that students with learning disabilities are the  only  students who have special educational needs. If the charter of the Westside School requires the enrollment of students with special educational needs and learning-disabled students are the only ones with such needs, then the absence of learning-disabled students would mean that the school is not in compliance with its charter. Therefore, assuming option (D) would lead to the conclusion that the school is currently in violation of its charter.

rosalynd · Answer

The conclusion of the argument is that the school is currently in violation of its charter. However, option (A) alone may not be sufficient to support this conclusion. Although learning disabilities can be considered as a subset of special educational needs set, there may be other disabilities that also fall under this set. Therefore, if a student with a disability other than a learning disability is enrolled in the school, the school would not be in violation of its charter.

Option (D), on the other hand, states that students with learning disabilities are the only students who have special educational needs. If the charter of the Westside School requires the enrollment of students with special educational needs and learning-disabled students are the only ones with such needs, then the absence of learning-disabled students would mean that the school is not in compliance with its charter. Therefore, assuming option (D) would lead to the conclusion that the school is currently in violation of its charter.

AnujSingh0147 · Answer

I eliminated the options B, and C after reading the options. 
However, options A/D and E are most crucial ones that consumed time :

Option A / Option D - between them one is the clear elimination due to being too extreme.
Initially I rejected option D of having logical gap. Although i decide to revisit it again.

Structure of the argument :
Charter of a school --> Include student with  SPECIAL EDUCATION NEEDS  -->No student with  LEARNING DISABILITY  enrolled --> School violating the charter

Option A ( All students with learning disabilities have special educational needs. ) 
Option D ( The only students with special educational needs are students with learning disabilities. )

Underlying Assumption : Students with LEARNING DISABILITY have the SPECIAL EDUCATION NEEDS.

Option A talked about all students with learning disability requires special education needs but didn't limit that ( i.e. There could be other types of students that might require special education needs (ambiguous) ). - Eliminated

Whereas Option D includes only students with learning disabilities that required special education needs and limits it to the specific types of students.

However, I spend considerable time on the option E ( The school’s charter cannot be modified in order to avoid its being violated.)  -  strongly fitted in the negation test. However, did not link/bridge Premise with the Conclusion. However, links the background with the conclusion. Therefore, identifying premise here is crucial. - Eliminated

Answer Option D

mihir_rahandani · Answer

Conclusion
The school is violating its charter/rules.

How and why?

Data/Premise:
Rule/Charter: the student body MUST include some students with special educational needs.

Data: Right now, no students with learning disabilities are enrolled.

There is some connection between SE needs and LD.

MUST include students with special educational needs, BUT have no student with learning disabilities.

So basically, school is considering student who needs special education as ONLY THOSE who have learning disabilities.

To make it more relatable - What about students with poor background? They also need special educational needs.
In the medical terms, what about 'Students who use wheelchairs'? What about 'Students who are blind or have low vision'?

Do they learning disabiltiy? NO, just that their body parts other than the mind is/are damaged.

But do they require special educational needs? DEFINITELY YES!

So, the shadow ans of assumption is: School is considering student who needs special education as ONLY THOSE who have learning disabilities.

Options -

(A) All students with learning disabilities have special educational needs.
Yes, why not! But the school assumed that students other than 'learning disability' do not have SE needs. I am finding ans for them (students other than learning disability, like hearing problem, lost vision)

(B) The school currently has no students with learning disabilities.
This is already given. The thing that is given cannot be our assumption.

(C) The school should enroll students with special educational needs.
'SHOULD OR SHOULD NOT' doesn't come under assumption. It shows us what to follow ahead and not the assumption hidden.

(D) The only students with special educational needs are students with learning disabilities.
Yes. School considered only learning disability type of students in special educational needs. 
What about the students who have lost vision or have a hearing problem? School didn't take that into consideration. ONLY people with learning disabilities. 
And NO students OTHER THAN learning disabilities
My ans.

(E) The school’s charter cannot be modified in order to avoid its being violated.
It's attacking the rule, and not the gap. It's just taking us on a different side to distract us.

Although the charter of Westside School states that the student body m

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Although the charter of Westside School states that the student body m

Prep Toolkit

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