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The better critique is that math requires homogenous data points. In sociology, every policy implementation is different in a million ways. A welfare program in
by devinhelton 10y ago
The better critique is that math requires homogenous data points. In sociology, every policy implementation is different in a million ways. A welfare program in Sweden is different than one in Chicago. The charter school program in Boston are different than those in Detroit. So doing statistical studies on a question like "do charter schools work" that treats all these implementations as identical, is often not very useful for actually learning something about policy.
- yummyfajitas 10y agoThe better critique is that math requires homogenous data points. This critique is similarly wrong. There's a field called "machine learning" - you might have heard of it - which often uses inhomogeneous data points. So doing statistical studies on a question like "do charter schools work" that treats all these implementations as identical, is often not very useful for actually learning something about policy. So instead build a model that understands the important factors which make charter schools work/fail. Then use it. If you can't do this, don't pretend you have anything to say about whether I should implement charter schools.