ponder for america

updates:

Tuesday, October 24, 2006 12:27 PM

satistics are numbers

so, erik wants me to know that a publishing company in kansas has ranked vermont the number one "smartest" state for two years running. okay, so what does that mean? a further look at morgan-quitno's webpage shows us how they arrived at the errant concept that vermonters have functioning brains.

one factor considered in the rankings: "Percent of Population Graduated from High School." factor not considered: percent of high school graduates who escaped vermont to pursue careers in states with economies.

items 15-21 on the morgan-quitno "smartest" chart have to do with class size & student/teacher ratios. vermont ranks 31st in population density, and 49th in total population. (link). i'm no statistician, but a state with nobody in it shouldn't have a problem keeping the student/teacher ratios down.

the morgan-quitno rankings are based on twenty-one factors. of those, a mere six have to do with student proficiency.

of the dozen or so vermonters i spoke with last week while resolving my 2003 speeding ticket (including a state cabinet member, the commissioner of the VT DMV, fresh out of a meeting with the governor) 100% believed that the national driver registry would take longer to access in florida than it would in new hampshire because it's further away. i stand by my statement. smartest state my ass.

Labels: retorts, vermont