Re: The joy of actual numbers, was Democracy

In comp.os.linux.misc D <nospam@example.net> wrote:

I teach at the vocational level, and I try to give them a rough start
to filter out the unmotivated ones.  Out of the ones who remain, when
I was allowed to educate as I wanted, 100% got jobs, and 100% got
salaries above their industry average.
 
The school was very excited, yet, angry that 40% quit.  They never
saw the connection between the two things.

Of course, because "how many got jobs?" and "how many earned above
industry average salary?" were not the statistics being measured to
determine "success" by whomever was doing the "measuring".

   "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his
   salary depends upon his not understanding it!"
   (https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Upton_Sinclair)

But fear not! The government is always there to make a good thing worse.
;) This year the government has changed the rules, so schools will be
measured on how many students quit a program and will be punished for it.

Nice.  So now the incentive will be to keep as many as possible in the
class, with the result that they disrupt the ones who do want to learn
enough that no one really succeeds.