3 ms·

It surely matters some. We have a nearly 100% literate society. All people can work with the basic of numbers. All people have the basics of nationalistic myth

It surely matters some. We have a nearly 100% literate society. All people can work with the basic of numbers. All people have the basics of nationalistic myth making, which is a critical part of having a stable nation. People have lots of practice in following orders for small rewards. Not all that much is taught up through high school, but the things that are are important for raising the baseline, even just a little. As for College, it is a lot of signaling, but it also gives practice taking in lots of new information when the expectations of performance are much higher and much closer to that of a typical professional job. It takes that low bar of high school and adds onto it significantly, and the hope is that even if the information was not useful, the ability to assimilate a few books worth of information within in a few weeks of starting a new job will not be a new experience.

axblount 4y ago
I'm not sure where you're from, but in the US, literacy rates are definitely not near 100%. In the report below 8.2% we're functionally illiterate and unable to participate in the survey. https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019179/index.asp https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019179/index.asp
- dougmwne 4y ago
  Sort of proving my point since that page you linked states that non-us born people were more likely to be functionally illiterate in English. Makes sense since they would not have gone through 18 years of US schooling in English, but may be literate in their native language. Many countries have literacy rates near 100%. The European country I am in now has a 99% literacy rate.
  - MichaelZuo 4y ago
    Among what subset of the population?
sanxiyn 4y ago
This study is specifically about extending compulsory schooling to age 14, 15, and 16. People are literate and can work with numbers by 13. If the benefit of high school is "raising the baseline just a little", we should ask ourselves whether "just a little" benefit justifies the cost. Education is not free, so it needs to move the needle. One way to measure the benefit is to look at outcomes of interest after long time has passed, so this study did that. There was no effect, casting doubt to earlier studies that found large effects. One strength of this study is that they work with complete data, unlike previous studies which mostly worked with sampled panels. This suggests sampling bias as a mechanism to explain previous studies.

axblount 4y ago

I'm not sure where you're from, but in the US, literacy rates are definitely not near 100%. In the report below 8.2% we're functionally illiterate and unable to participate in the survey. https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019179/index.asp https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019179/index.asp

dougmwne 4y ago
Sort of proving my point since that page you linked states that non-us born people were more likely to be functionally illiterate in English. Makes sense since they would not have gone through 18 years of US schooling in English, but may be literate in their native language. Many countries have literacy rates near 100%. The European country I am in now has a 99% literacy rate.
- MichaelZuo 4y ago
  Among what subset of the population?

sanxiyn 4y ago

This study is specifically about extending compulsory schooling to age 14, 15, and 16. People are literate and can work with numbers by 13. If the benefit of high school is "raising the baseline just a little", we should ask ourselves whether "just a little" benefit justifies the cost. Education is not free, so it needs to move the needle. One way to measure the benefit is to look at outcomes of interest after long time has passed, so this study did that. There was no effect, casting doubt to earlier studies that found large effects. One strength of this study is that they work with complete data, unlike previous studies which mostly worked with sampled panels. This suggests sampling bias as a mechanism to explain previous studies.