Much better, actually; he lays out why, with some nice graphs:
Charter schools are better, we just don’t want to admit it
I think the conventional wisdom on charter school evidence could be summed up thusly: ”some charter schools appear to do very well, but on average charters do no better and no worse than public schools”. But I would like to propose a better conventional wisdom: “some charter schools appear to do very well, and on average charters do better at educating poor students and black students”. If the...
Why IRBs are not necessary for social science research
In this article, I suggest a different and more liberalized path. In Part I,I describe the regulatory metastasis of IRBs and some problems it is causing for social science research. In Part II, I offer some thoughts on the ways in which these problems might arise from the pro-regulatory incentives to which IRBs are exposed. Finally, in Part III, I outline some modest liberalizing reforms...
IRB’s kill people and suppress good research
This licensing has profound costs for human life. Although there is no scientifically serious empirical evidence that IRBs save any lives by overseeing research under the human-subjects research regulations, it is abundantly clear that they suppress vast amounts of medical knowledge, and they thereby leave large numbers of individuals without the information they need to live. Put simply, IRBs...
How to cure campus binge drinking: lower the drinking age
As someone who went to college when Texas raised the drinking ago from 18 to 21 (with a corresponding crackdown on public drinking by my university), I remember how student behavior changed: students began chugging beers in the privacy of their dorm rooms to get drunk before they headed out to that night’s party. Activists, administrators, and national policymakers concerned about a...
Academic freedom still lives, if only at U Chicago
It’s a mark of how fall higher ed has fallen, that a policy saying it’s okay to deeply offend someone on campus is now considered newsworthy. My added emphasis: Of course, the ideas of different members of the University community will often and quite naturally conflict. But it is not the proper role of the University to attempt to shield individuals from ideas and opinions they find...
Students have different “learning styles” is a myth
Is there any evidence to support the learning styles concept? Yes there is a little, but experts on the topic like Harold Pashler and Doug Rohrer point out that most of this evidence is weak. Convincing evidence for learning styles would show that people of one preferred learning style learned better when taught material in their favored way, whereas a different group with a different preference...
Intro to geographic regression discontinuity designs
In the latest issue of Political Analysis: Political scientists often turn to natural experiments to draw causal inferences with observational data. Recently, the regression discontinuity design (RD) has become a popular type of natural experiment due to its relatively weak assumptions. We study a special type of regression discontinuity design where the discontinuity in treatment assignment is...
Duke student convicted using indirect-double hearsay
Unfortunately, it is not an Onion parody: Having completed her report, Irvine didn’t testify before the hearing—denying McLeod an opportunity to cross-examine her about her investigative techniques; and, perhaps more important, denying McLeod an opportunity to ask her follow-up questions about the witnesses that she did interview. Nor did most of the students interviewed by Irvine testify at the...
Harvard Law professor: Feds’ position on sexual-assault policies Is ‘madness’
Prof. Bartholet said that Harvard University failed to challenge the government, and that other schools throughout the country need to show leadership by resisting the Department of Education’s position. “I believe that history will demonstrate the federal government’s position to be wrong, that our society will look back on this time as a moment of madness, and that Harvard University will be...