3 ms·

First a point about bias. They are quick to point out the bias of traditional scores. But they do not point out that their bias is for libertarian causes. Ha

by btilly 8y ago

First a point about bias. They are quick to point out the bias of traditional scores. But they do not point out that their bias is for libertarian causes. Had they not found that more libertarian states perform well by their measure, they would never have published this. Removing graduation rates is definitely troublesome. Any school system could then improve its numbers by encouraging the worst students to drop out. Problem students both take more resources to educate and produce worse scores. That's bad for efficiency, but it is not obviously bad for society. I am also troubled that they are using measures of performance in grades 4 and 8, but not something like SAT scores. I understand that SAT scores could be hard to get. But a lot of what people care about in an education system is how well prepared you are for college, and not how far along you were in grade 8.

the_watcher 8y ago
> But they do not point out that their bias is for libertarian causes. Had they not found that more libertarian states perform well by their measure, they would never have published this. The first statement is true. The piece would be a bit stronger if the researchers noted that by publishing in Reason, they're at the very least giving the appearance of potential confirmation bias. Your second statement makes an unsupported assumption though. RE: SAT scores - not all students take the SAT, some students take it multiple times, the SAT is taken at different points in time per student, and it's a test that is so influential in college admissions that success on it is strongly correlated with wealth, as scores are best improved by tutoring on test taking strategy, not increasing general knowledge. I agree that grade 4 and 8 are probably not optimal to get a complete picture of education quality, but there is no reward to the student for doing well, so they're less likely to have spent substantial time investing in beating the test.

by btilly 8y ago

the_watcher 8y ago

> But they do not point out that their bias is for libertarian causes. Had they not found that more libertarian states perform well by their measure, they would never have published this. The first statement is true. The piece would be a bit stronger if the researchers noted that by publishing in Reason, they're at the very least giving the appearance of potential confirmation bias. Your second statement makes an unsupported assumption though. RE: SAT scores - not all students take the SAT, some students take it multiple times, the SAT is taken at different points in time per student, and it's a test that is so influential in college admissions that success on it is strongly correlated with wealth, as scores are best improved by tutoring on test taking strategy, not increasing general knowledge. I agree that grade 4 and 8 are probably not optimal to get a complete picture of education quality, but there is no reward to the student for doing well, so they're less likely to have spent substantial time investing in beating the test.