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Definitely. A similar example: at one point studies started coming out that showed the best performing schools were small. Cue a lot of noise on how small schoo
by greenshackle 10y ago
Definitely. A similar example: at one point studies started coming out that showed the best performing schools were small. Cue a lot of noise on how small schools are better, if you want your kids to be successful, send them to a small school, etc. I think these findings even showed up in government reports/recommendations.
Problem is, the worst performing schools were also small. Almost all of the effect could be explained by higher variance.
Unfortunately I don't remember where where I read about this, wish I could provide sources.
EDIT: found it. It wasnt government, it was the Gates foundation, who spent billions into supporting smaller schools.
http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s8863.pdf http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s8863.pdf
- sevenless 10y agoOh my God. They wasted a billion dollars and made education worse because they didn't understand variance.
- dragonwriter 10y agoWhile the research wasn't performed by the government, I think its the basis for the move toward small "schools-within-schools" as an educational "reform" in a number of public schools.
- tgb 10y agoThis is a beautiful article. Though I've read a number of reports that the higher male variance isn't all it was thought to be, but can't find it again. There should be done interesting studies about the variance in different species whose gender differentiation is done by a different mechanism, namely where the female has the two different chromosomes.