[kelseyfrog]

Yep, known as Bloom's Two Sigma Problem[1]. Like most hard problems we know the solution, but lack the appetite to implement.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom%27s_2_sigma_problem

[intended]

Hey Bloom’s 2 sigma problem. So far, (nearly) all conversations about education on HN I’ve seen, have had a naturally point at which Bloom’s 2s should be introduced.

Humanity is now preparing students with a 20 year time horizon, while tech changes much faster. If this was agriculture, the industry would be doomed by that horizon mismatch.

We really need more teachers, if we want the median citizen to be better off.

[bradleyjg]

The study picked an artificial and useless proxy.

What did tutored students go on to do? Were they over represented in Nobel Prizes, hedge fund billionaires, heads of state?

Or did they do well on a meaningless test and then forget all about whatever they “learned” just like everyone else?

The entire field is absolutely littered with this problem. Everyone is targeting cholesterol and not all cause mortality.

[kelseyfrog]

What evidence would change your mind?

[bradleyjg]

Strong correlations to actual outcomes. That can be career outcomes or otherwise but actual outcomes people care about. Not test scores.

We have a zillion natural experiments because there are so many schools in the world and within many of them teachers given a lot of leeway.

Does any of it make a damn bit of difference controlling for everything else? We have Waldorf schools teaching woodworking and cram schools shoving AP courses at eighth graders—-that’s a large difference, what do life outcomes show?

[kelseyfrog]

That's fair. It helps knowing what would change things. Thank you for sharing! appreciate it