Clinton announces intent to shut thousands of schools

[Sarpedon]

I've never understood how a building can affect the performance of the people inside. I understand that a leaky roof or bad lighting would be a problem, but the solution to those things are obvious.

How does taking all the people out of a building and sending them to other places improve things?

There is ample evidence that factors such as natural light, noise levels, air quality and visual stimulation affect people of all ages, with children being most affected. Too many schools in the United States were built in an era dominated by fortress-like concrete edifices with tiny windows, large windows being regarded as a 'distraction,' which relied on not so good artificial ventilation and blinky flourescent lights. Nowadays, a mixture of natural and mechanical ventilation is prescribed (for all buildings, really, except server farms), along with natural light, soft surfaces in classrooms for sound absorbtion, with color and visual interest in materials and furnishings.

 

[fromderinside]

Yeah everybody, quit picking on dismal. He has done best partisan critical thinking he can.

Right, I just produced a clip of Clinton announcing her intent to shut down below average schools and produced the relevant math to assess the implications. Just the messenger.

Really? She announced her intent? She intends to shut down below average schools? You're just the messenger? How about she opined that she wouldn't support keeping open less than average performing schools. How about rather than intends anything she has a opinion. How about rather than changing the statement and taking outlandish assumptions you make honest assumptions. For instance below average is not half the schools. Below average is no more than a third of the schools since there are above average, average, and below average schools on its face. And schools so below average that they harm students are dangerously below average in practice bringing the total calculated way way way down. So you over step even is she intended it and obviously she didn't intend it.

See I just made one assumption, dangerously below average, and I completely negated your headline grab. Your three assumptions puts you way over the top as a propagandist and into the class others have described as you being a right wing shill.

 

[AthenaAwakened]

Dismal,

A = 100-93
B = 92-85
C = 84-77
D = 76-70
F = 69 and below

This is a 7 point grading
A is Excellent
B is Above Average
C is Average
D is Below Average
F is Failing

Average does not always mean the mean.

But you already know that.

Do you just want to be obtuse and annoying?

What I don't get is that you could probably find actual legitimate criticism of the Clinton Education policy, but this isn't about the Clinton Education policy, is it? This is about Clinton.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Boo!

Show

 

[ZiprHead]

AAAAaaaaaaahhh!!!

 

[dismal]

Average does not always mean the mean.

Could you explain the difference for us?

And why it is relevant here?

 

[Achwienichtig]

How many 8th Graders today could pass it? Do we blame the buildings?

Most of those questions are useless trivia. I'm sure 8th graders today could pass just as easy if presented the information in class and memorized it for the test

Useless trivia? So you consider spelling, grammar, mathematics, civic governance, basic physiology, and basic geography to be useless? I couldn't disagree with you more.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Average does not always mean the mean.

Could you explain the difference for us?

And why it is relevant here?

when speaking to a school crowd the way a school measures "average" could be relevant. So, like schools graded as "D" and "F" would not deserve to be open.

 

[Achwienichtig]

Dismal,

A = 100-93
B = 92-85
C = 84-77
D = 76-70
F = 69 and below

This is a 7 point grading
A is Excellent
B is Above Average
C is Average
D is Below Average
F is Failing

Average does not always mean the mean.

But you already know that.

Do you just want to be obtuse and annoying?

What I don't get is that you could probably find actual legitimate criticism of the Clinton Education policy, but this isn't about the Clinton Education policy, is it? This is about Clinton.

To be fair, Athena, I don't think most people know this grading system. With how many changes are taking place in the school system, between No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, plus the multi-state endeavor of common core, it's very few people who understand all the educational lingo that gets tossed about. Things are changing fast, and social media dumbs down the discussion, so we can't all keep up with it.

 

[KeepTalking]

Average does not always mean the mean.

Could you explain the difference for us?

And why it is relevant here?

She did that in the very post to which you respond. She even included numbers that demonstrate how 'average' can be arrived at without using the word to represent a statistical mean.

 

[AthenaAwakened]

Average does not always mean the mean.

Could you explain the difference for us?

And why it is relevant here?

I could, but then you would have to be eliminated.

 

[fromderinside]

Average does not always mean the mean.

Could you explain the difference for us?

And why it is relevant here?

One should point out that the US school education profile demonstrate performance  [B]Kurtosis[/B] and grading imprecision. In this case the proportion of students performing below the mean are way more than those performing above the mean. That is to say that there are many schools performing in the teens to thirties and a few who are preforming in the eighties and nineties that the mean rests somewhere in the low forties. The median score would be in the low thirties. So any claim of below average would have to specify what that meant. Does it mean anything below the mean which would be more than half of the schools or does it mean below the mid thirties which would be about 50% of the schools, or does it mean something else, say, like a passing school grade that is in the seventies according to its designers?

Failure to explain all of this makes dismal's OP look just plain stupid.

 

[AthenaAwakened]

Could you explain the difference for us?

And why it is relevant here?

She did that in the very post to which you respond. She even included numbers that demonstrate how 'average' can be arrived at without using the word to represent a statistical mean.

He knows that. But he wants to be annoying and obtuse, isn't that right dismal? Engaging and considerate is just too hard.

 

[Nice Squirrel]

She did that in the very post to which you respond. She even included numbers that demonstrate how 'average' can be arrived at without using the word to represent a statistical mean.

He knows that. But he wants to be annoying and obtuse, isn't that right dismal? Engaging and considerate is just too hard.

You may be 100% right but in defense of dismal, Hillary is a vicious killer who ordered the deaths of Whitewater and Baby Jessica.

HILLZ KILLZ

 

[dismal]

She did that in the very post to which you respond. She even included numbers that demonstrate how 'average' can be arrived at without using the word to represent a statistical mean.

He knows that. But he wants to be annoying and obtuse, isn't that right dismal? Engaging and considerate is just too hard.

No, I actually would like you to explain what "average" means to you in this context and what percent of schools you imagine are "below average".

In my initial post, I assumed that school performance was normally distributed. This seems like a fairly reasonable assumption, and given I added some appropriate hedging and weasel words I feel my calculation of the number of below average schools was reasonably correct.

So, I have already shown my work.

If you have a have a different distribution in mind it would be helpful for me to know which one, and why you think it is likely to be more representative than the normal distribution.

 

[dismal]

Confirmation of the 50,000 number:

http://thefederalist.com/2015/12/22...president-ill-shut-down-50000-public-schools/

 

[Nice Squirrel]

Confirmation of the 50,000 number:

http://thefederalist.com/2015/12/22...president-ill-shut-down-50000-public-schools/

And get rid of all those pesky union teachers slashing the budget like Scott Walker on meth!

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Confirmation of the 50,000 number:

http://thefederalist.com/2015/12/22...president-ill-shut-down-50000-public-schools/

Given the number of elementary schools in that group being closed, this plan will make a large amount of child labour available, which will help the US be able to compete with China and create American jobs.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Average, above average...

Makes me think of Akron schools. They are closing schools because the district was built for a large population back when Akron mattered. So my child will no longer go to an average Elementary school, but to an above average Elementary school. Makes one wonder. Same city. Same teachers union. So why the different results?

I have no idea. Couldn't have anything to do with the rich affluent children going to it instead of the lower to low middle class students. Couldn't at all. Must be a union or Clinton thing.

People who like comparing schools as apples to apples must really not do anything important in the real world to understand shit isn't that easy to compare. Or maybe they do make important decisions, but they musn't be held accountable.

 

[KeepTalking]

Confirmation of the 50,000 number:

http://thefederalist.com/2015/12/22...president-ill-shut-down-50000-public-schools/

This is only confirmation of your bias.