Links for 3/31/10

Frances Woolley

if what is taught at universities actually makes people more productive, then simply taking university courses should be enough increase earnings. In fact, to get much of a payoff from university education, you have to finish your degree (the “sheepskin effect” ). One reason education pays is that completing a degree “signals” your ability, determination, competence and general stick-with-it-ness.

Perhaps we should think of human capital as a fairy tale, a reassuring bedside story…

But human capital is more than a comforting story – it is a myth that shapes our understanding of the world and thus public policy. Ontario’s government is urging universities to increase retention rates, so everyone who starts university completes a degree. If the human capital theory is true, then this is sound policy: more students completing university means more human capital means a more productive economy. If, however, the value of university education is as a signal of ability, then one of the most important things that universities do is fail students…

[ Mark Thoma comments ]

Chad Aldeman

NAEP is different than most standardized tests. It takes a sample of the current population in every state, so this year’s population of kids is compared to the last time the test was administered. There’s an automatic correction for changing demographics, so as America has gotten less white, so has NAEP. In statistical terms this creates something called Simpson’s Paradox, which makes trend lines seem worse than they really are because of a hidden variable, in this case, race…

In other words, the white-black and white-Hispanic gaps are closing and every group is scoring higher, but the national score is showing more modest improvements because of demographic changes…

Scott Jaschik

a new book, AP: A Critical Examination of the Advanced Placement Program…

believed to be the most comprehensive gathering of studies to date -- is decidedly mixed. Those who distrust AP out of a dislike of programs built around standardized tests won’t find smoking guns about the test itself here…

Claims that the program helps students graduate on time or save money are found generally to have no validity. And research in the book suggests that many of the efforts to push the program into more schools -- a push that has been financed with many millions in state and federal funds -- may be paying for poorly-prepared students to fail courses they shouldn’t be taking in the first place…

David Glenn and Peter Schmidt

Would you like to major in anthropology at Florida State University? Sorry: The department stopped accepting new students last year. What about economics at the University of Louisiana at Monroe? That major is also going out of business. Computational physics at Oregon State? Circling the drain.

Critics sometimes grumble that American universities' curricula constantly metastasize and never shrink. But that hasn't been true in this recession. Dozens of majors and doctoral programs have been suspended or terminated since last year, and many more have been under the shadow of the guillotine…