CB>SAT SCORES UP; SHANKER CREDITS MORE RIGOROUS COURSES
CB>SAT scores rose modestly in 1996, an improvement AFT president Albert
CB>Shanker attributes to a renewed emphasis in schools on the academic
CB>core curriculum. The average math score rose two points, to 508, while
CB>verbal scores were up a point, to 505.
RM>This, of course, is silly... A 1 or 2 point change is just
RM>background "noise", as it only represents something like a
RM>0.2% - 0.4% change - Random fluctuation.....
CB>True enough for a small sample, but given the size of the 
CB>participating sample, are you sure?
Am I sure... Would I bet my life - no .... Am I pretty darn
sure - yes.  I don't think we have ANY instruments which are
sensitive enough to reliably detect a less than 1% variation
and ascribe it to a real cause under the best of circumstances!  
Think about it Charles; could any SAT test be EXACTLY equivilent 
to the previous year's, all the students taking it exactly 
equivilent, to the extent that such a statement could be 
supportable?  And "testing" human behavior, not mechanical
tolerances?  I mean how many sigma reliability would that have
to be?  Simple chaos theory would discount such an outcome even
if the sample population and instrument WERE totally stable!
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 * MR/2 2.26 * OS/2 WARP: Bill Gates' worst nightmare!
--- Maximus/2 3.01
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