Newmark's Door

"Columbia Class of 2017 Post Their Application Essays, Say the Darndest Things"

I"m glad I don't have to read them.

Topics range from the deeply personal, to the seemingly mundane, to the blatantly ridiculous. 

"Do stock-picking contests fetishize risk?"

Yes! They should be completely removed from high school and college economics classes. 

Next question.

"Here's What The First SAT Test Looked Like"

Almost twice as many questions as today's version. 

In 97 minutes. 

I can answer this question

"Wouldn’t it be nice to have a New York where it was a sin for a school to fail rather than succeed?"

"Scientific Articles Accepted (Personal Checks, Too)"

This is lamentable, of course, but completely unsurprising (at least to an economist). If you have a system with big stakes, you will have people trying to game the system.

Count on it.

Female UConn senior angered, frustrated, and "outright offended" by . . .

. . . a dog logo. 

Is this what Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem fought for? 

"Things students do that aren't annoying"

Equal time for the other side.

1. Coming to office hours. It's office hours. I've come to my office expressly for the purpose of meeting students. Helping students understand the course material is what makes holding office hours worthwhile.

"Six Ways the edX Announcement Gets Automated Essay Grading Wrong"

Defense of automated essay grading.

Interesting, but I'd still want to see it before I believe it. (Link via Marginal Revolution.)

See also "Essay-Grading Software Offers Professors a Break".

Dr. Agarwal said he believed that the software was nearing the capability of human grading.

“This is machine learning and there is a long way to go, but it’s good enough and the upside is huge,” he said. “We found that the quality of the grading is similar to the variation you find from instructor to instructor.”

"Accelerated Learning Would Add Trillions of Dollars in Wealth"

Steady readers of this blog will know I have for a long time advocated shortening high school by a year and taking a year out of college, too. Reuven Brenner makes an excellent case for this.

"Charter school experiment a success: Our view"

USA Today editorizes--I was surprised--that at least the best charter schools work.

But as evidence from the 20-year-old charter experiment mounts, the snipers are in need of a new argument. There's little doubt left that top-performing charters have introduced new educational models that have already achieved startling results in even the most difficult circumstances.

I've scanned the Mathematica policy report linked to in the article and I think it is impressive. Every objection to charter school success that I've ever heard of is addressed. If you're interested in educational reform, I recommend it.