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kleinbl00  ·  882 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Cornel West: Howard University’s removal of classics is a spiritual catastrophe

As promised I'm reading Weapons of Math Destruction and I think it's maybe a must-read. She spends a chapter on the US News and World Report college ranking list, which I already knew was garbage after three Jeff Selingo books. One thing I hadn't internalized, however, was that USNews' "make the model meet the expectations" algorithm, whereby Stanford and Harvard and Yale better come out on top or else your rankings are worthless, has disregarded tuition since the list's inception in 1984. On the other hand, 25% of the list's weight comes from how well-regarded schools are by other schools which means Texas Christian can fundraise (fundraising is another important metric) and then spend the resultant $400m on marketing to other colleges.

Cathy O'Neil outlines exactly how a do-or-die list devoid of price consideration but wholly dependent on fundraising and test scores has not only increased tuition by 500% since 2000, it has also eliminated the concept of safety schools and created a billion dollar industry whereby students are shaped to precisely match the model that drives US News rankings.

I wonder if the Facebook kerfuffle is maybe going to make this stuff more prominent, more front'n'center. 'cuz Weapons of Math Destruction could easily be the Silent Spring of algorithmic prejudice.

Models are opinions embedded in mathematics.

- Cathy O'Neil