Reply #9: The wonders of averages. [View All]

[Igel]

It raises the question, however, as to what the standard deviation is, and other properties of the distribution.

It may be 54% overall, but for a given school it might be lower or higher. Is there a pattern to the distribution? After all, some schools in NYC have high graduation rates; these have to be offset by lower rates elsewhere, if the average is true.

Moreover, those are just public schools. When I lived outside of Baltimore a good acquaintance (let's not call him a 'friend') commuted daily to a private school in the city. Most of his friends were city-dwellers. They also count against the educational level of the populace at large; just not against public school efficacy.

Note that some have said that there's been at best small changes in overall public school graduation rates since the '70s. So 1/3 of the US population didn't obtain their public HS diplomas. I know among those I've tutored in English and reading, most didn't have their HS diplomas. My wife didn't. And I knew kids in my HS that dropped out. Does this strike me as reasonable? No, not now. Most of the people I know and talk to with any degree of regularity have at least their master's degree, and maybe a third have a doctorate. I know enough to surmise that my circle of acquaintances isn't a random sample.

On edit: Those going to private schools would show up as a net negative for the public school system, since we're only talking about public schools. So those numbers should also be included, if possible, to give a good picture.