<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;">This item, "<a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/14/metro/cambridge-schools-divided-over-middle-school-math/?et_rid=696624770&s_campaign=todaysheadlines:newsletter">Cambridge schools are divided over middle school algebra,</a>” in the Globe may be an illustration of the strong form of Goodhart’s Law (… or, at any rate, of the law of unintended consequences) as applied to education -<div><br></div><div><i>"The district’s aim was to reduce disparities between low-income children of color, who weren’t often represented in such courses, and their more affluent peers. But some families and educators argue the decision has had the opposite effect, limiting advanced math to students whose parents can afford to pay for private lessons, like the popular after-school program Russian Math, or find other options for their kids, like Udengaard is doing." </i></div><div><br></div><div>Regardless, the response to the measured problem was a cop out. Having detected a racial disparity statistically, rather than taking steps to help poor kids move up, they sought to correct the statistic by keeping affluent kids down. </div><div><br></div><div> John B</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br><div><br><div>On Jul 10, 2023, at 1:29 PM, Jon Dreyer <jon@jondreyer.org> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div>
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<div><p>By the time I got through the first few paragraphs, I remembered
that, over a decade ago, I saw the danger of what he calls
"overfitting" in education and coined what I called "the implicit
motto of education reform":</p>
<blockquote><p><i>If you can't measure what you value, value what you can
measure.</i></p>
</blockquote><p>So I was not surprised to see education as the first on the list
of examples of the the danger of overfitting in section 3.</p><p>I'd not read of Goodhart's Law, either the weak or strong forms,
but I had discovered the idea. It seems increasingly important to
keep in mind as technology makes it ever easier to measure things.
A few examples I don't think I saw in the article are measuring
executive performance by measuring quarterly financials or
measuring software engineers by lines of code.<br>
</p><p>-- <br>
</p><p style="font-family: Times, serif">
Jon "Measure Twice, Gut Once" Dreyer<br>
<a href="http://www.passionatelycurious.com/">Math Tutor/Computer
Science Tutor</a><br>
<a href="http://music.jondreyer.com/">Jon Dreyer Music</a>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br></div><div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br></div><div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br></div><div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 7/10/23 8:40 AM, Harry Forsdick
wrote:<br>
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<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:CABKvzKoTUFAH7o8tgTpCfJZ2=RXSC6tr5ZxBPTH6eHq5AC8ZQw@mail.gmail.com">
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<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:large;color:rgb(11,83,148)">Interesting
use of ML/AI:</div>
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<div class="gmail_default" style=""><span style="font-size:calc(var(--simplify-font-size) +
0.3125rem);color:rgb(11,83,148);font-family:verdana,sans-serif">Too
much efficiency makes everything worse: overfitting and
the strong version of Goodhart's law</span></div>
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</blockquote>
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<div class="gmail_default" style="">
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size:calc(var(--simplify-font-size) +
0.3125rem);color:rgb(11,83,148);font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><a href="https://sohl-dickstein.github.io/2022/11/06/strong-Goodhart.html" moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://sohl-dickstein.github.io/2022/11/06/strong-Goodhart.html</a></span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:large;color:rgb(11,83,148)">--
Harry</div>
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</blockquote>
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