In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
J. Williams <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Francis Galton explained it in 1885. Possibly, the Mass. Dept. of
>Education missed it! Or, could it be that the same gang who brought
>us the exit poll data during the November election were helping them
>out? :-)
>I am wondering why they did not have a set of objective standards for
>ALL students to meet.
Unless the standards are abysmally low, or it is expected that
many will not even come close, this is impossible. People are
GREATLY different, and this is a big part of the problem.
Of course, it is nice to reward academically
>weaker districts for "improving," but the real issue may not be
>"improvement," rather it might be attainment at a specific level for
>all schools as a minimum target.
Not only are individuals different, but the "law of large
numbers" does not make school populations even remotely close
to equal.
All of this testing of schools is based on flawed assumptions.
The null hypothesis is always false.
--
This address is for information only. I do not claim that these views
are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University.
Herman Rubin, Dept. of Statistics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette IN47907-1399
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: (765)494-6054 FAX: (765)494-0558
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