Technologies like online education would crush the existing education system if the playground is fair. Unfortunately the latter has public funding in it and prevents the society from moving forward.
School is all about signaling, not skill-building
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Re: School is all about signaling, not skill-building
#12Admissions based on standardized test scores ONLY. Make colleges co-sign loans. Fixed it.
The usual complaint about wealthy families buying college access is explicitly standardized test prep courses and tutors.
Re: School is all about signaling, not skill-building
#13> Researchers consistently find that most of education’s payoff comes from graduation, from crossing the academic finish line. Not even. Just being able to show that you "went" to Harvard is a powerful enough of a signal. You can join, drop out immediately after, start a startup, fail, an then likely end up somewhere really prestigious anyway.
Yes, but Harvard etc is super special snowflake exception.
Re: School is all about signaling, not skill-building
#14Admissions based on standardized test scores ONLY. Make colleges co-sign loans. Fixed it.
The usual complaint about wealthy families buying college access is explicitly standardized test prep courses and tutors.
Standardized test is still better than alternatives for reducing poor-rich gap.
Re: School is all about signaling, not skill-building
#15Admissions based on standardized test scores ONLY. Make colleges co-sign loans. Fixed it.
You're aware that people can pay other people to take their tests for them, perhaps?
Add on the difference between the scores of people who can afford to pay for tutors and the scores of people who can't, and you'll begin to see the problem.
Re: School is all about signaling, not skill-building
#16“If a student wants to study at Princeton, he doesn’t really need to apply or pay tuition. He can simply show up and start taking classes. As a professor, I assure you that we make near-zero effort to stop unofficial education; indeed, the rare, earnestly curious student touches our hearts. At the end of four years at Princeton, though, the guerrilla student would lack one precious thing: a diploma. The fact that almost no one tries this route — saving hundreds of thousands of dollars along the way — is a strong sign that students understand the value of certification over actual learning“
Isn’t this how Steve Jobs treated college? And “Apple” was his “diploma”?
Re: School is all about signaling, not skill-building
#17Has anyone seen a framework for companies to screen emotional skills such as resilience, drive and internal motivations for candidates and have done it well?
Re: School is all about signaling, not skill-building
#18> Researchers consistently find that most of education’s payoff comes from graduation, from crossing the academic finish line. Not even. Just being able to show that you "went" to Harvard is a powerful enough of a signal. You can join, drop out immediately after, start a startup, fail, an then likely end up somewhere really prestigious anyway.
Yes, but Harvard etc is super special snowflake exception.
My point is that signaling works without any sort of coursework. The instant you make it into Stanford, you're a Stanford kid, which puts you into an elite group of desirable employees.
And of course these colleges are special snowflakes, they wouldn't be signals otherwise. Nobody cares if you went to a community college down the street, it associates no household name with you.
Re: School is all about signaling, not skill-building
#19Admissions based on standardized test scores ONLY. Make colleges co-sign loans. Fixed it.
South Korea actually kinda does this (your university depends on one single test), and the results aren’t that pretty...