4 Likes
Ballot initiative that will permit local governments to pass any rent control ordinance so California can resemble India.
2 Likes
And people say the Electoral College is anachronistic and confusing
3 Likes
1 Like
10 Likes
It’s almost like so-called vaccination status is a proxy for something else…? What could that be 
9 Likes
Fascinating coincidences
2 Likes
Why is it so expensive to visit a hospital?
Why are there long lines and waiting times at the ER?
So many complicated questions
1 Like
Regime operatives and fellow travelers: birds of a feather flock together.
3 Likes
Something is wrong with the SAT graph. SAT scores are normalized so that the average is 1000. If it’s a Gaussian distribution, which is probably a good approximation, median and mean are the same so it doesn’t matter what kind of average it is. True for any symmetrical distribution function.
3 Likes
I didn’t realize this was what they did. Thus, if performance is falling every year, it would not be detected through standardized testing.
This (below screenshot) is scary. The bench marks (on the right) represent a 75% chance of getting a C in an first-semester college course in Math (for the Math column) and a “C in first-semester, credit-bearing, college-level courses in history, literature, social science, or writing.”
Only 46.5% of graduates could pass a social science class. Only a third could pass first-semester algebra, pre-calc etc. Yet 65% of graduates go on to college of which 50% should be damn near flunking out.
What a wonderful educational system. What kind of society sends this many children into debt trying to do something they are likely to fail at. Meanwhile the Universities are trying to make sure they pass and eventually graduate.
Imagine the outrage when you are told you will earn this great salary because you got a piece of paper that cost you tens of thousands of dollars only to learn you really do have to have basic competency in the things you were supposed to have learned in order to get that great salary.
5 Likes
The student loan program has to be dismantled
Universities not taxpayers should bear the cost of any defaults or forgiveness
2 Likes
I don’t think the scores are renormalized every year. The ETS is a bit cagey about all this. There was an infamous re-centering of the scores c. 1995 that effectively raised the scores. For example, a 640 verbal score miraculously became a 700. There is a conversion table in this paper, which confusingly claims that “Percentiles will remain virtually unchanged.” The example given shows why the re-centering was necessary:
For example: a student who scored a 420 or
430 on the verbal section in 1993 (about the
average verbal score for that year) would be
at the 50th percentile. After recentering, that
student’s score would change to about 500
but the percentile would still be at 50 percent.
In other words, a student with a score 420 on a the test that was originally calibrated to 500 for the 50th percentile would now be awarded a score of 500. This can be seen in Table 1. For the math part (Table 2), the old score 470 is upgraded to 500. This tells you that students got only a little stupider in math but quite a bit stupider in English.
In short, 500 for each part is the ideal median score but the adjustments are not made every year. Here’s an opinion piece from 1994 that ridicules the College Board and ETS.
Worry not, the ETS is committed not only to DEI. They are committed to DEIB! What does the B stand for? A prize for all correct guesses. No peeking!
6 Likes
B is for BIPOC lol
2 Likes
Again in the early 2000’s IIRC.
4 Likes
Do they have that per-capita?