"A couple of colleagues have already pointed out how the statement you so
scornfully cite might in fact be true; ...".
Well, we have already seen that to be the case with "professional"
educators.
However, for statisticians the definition of "median" is still that element
or [ the mean of two adjacent elements ] of a population for which the
parameter in question results in half the population being greater in value
with the other half being less. Ninety percent refers to a decile of a
population, not the median.
The median is explained very simply at:
http://ri.essortment.com/medianmiddlest_rtiy.htm
WDA
end
.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Donald Burrill" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "W. D. Allen Sr." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2001 11:01 PM
Subject: Re: Ninety Percent above Median
> On Thu, 31 May 2001, W. D. Allen Sr. wrote:
>
> > Only from the education field do we hear the statement that over ninety
> > percent of students ranked above the median! The statement was made on
> > TV.
>
> (1) I take it that it was the keyword "students" that led you to suppose
> that the statement had anything to do with "the education field" (rather
> than, say, the field of study the students were pursuing).
>
> (2) The statement appears, however, not to have been made by any agency
> of "the education field", but "on TV" -- by which one supposes you mean
> broadcast television. That's not education: that's entertainment.
> Or, possibly, "news", or the deliberate distortion thereof.
>
> (3) A couple of colleagues have already pointed out how the statement
> you so scornfully cite might in fact be true; although whether in fact
> any such interpretation can be believed is impossible to tell, in the
> absence of any context.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Donald F. Burrill [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 348 Hyde Hall, Plymouth State College, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> MSC #29, Plymouth, NH 03264 603-535-2597
> 184 Nashua Road, Bedford, NH 03110 603-471-7128
>
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