Number Needed to Treat is an aggregate measure of clinical benefit that medical study geeks love because it has a comprehensibility lacking in odds ratios and relative benefit percentages. It represents the number of patients that would need to receive a treatment for one of the patients to avoid an adverse outcome (death, stroke, development Continue reading

Student debt is a problem, I think. I’m pretty sure about that. But reporting like this isn’t helpful: But this is a bigger problem than many realize. A recent study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that outstanding student loans have surpassed the nation’s $693-billion credit card balance. Even more eye-opening, nearly 80% of Continue reading

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Occasionally when I argue against the claim that higher education is on the verge of catastrophic collapse, and warn that MOOCs are being advanced by many as a replacement for higher education instead of a supplement to it I’m told I’m arguing against straw men. Where are these people? Show me the articles! The truth Continue reading

There’s a great article in The Atlantic on student debt, and it’s well worth a read. But it makes what I believe is a common mistake on student loan debt. Check out this paragraph…  When teenagers are forced to take out loans in order to pay for their education — the median graduate leaves school $12,800 Continue reading

Part of the thing I like about this is it shows that it’s really not very hard. Start with this: what are the actual figures? What was actually counted? Do the figures even make sense? You, too, can take the three minutes it takes before re-pinning or re-sharing the latest piece of idiocy… Continue reading

From here: The amount of student loans taken out last year crossed the $100 billion mark for the first time and total loans outstanding will exceed $1 trillion for the first time this year. Americans now owe more on student loans than on credit cards, reports the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the U.S. Department Continue reading

(Ha, you thought I was going with the Brooks movie or Sierra Madre, right?) Because this seems as good a place as any to note it, I think one person who doesn’t get credit enough on learning badges is Roger Schank. When I went to work for his company in 2000, he’d already been talking Continue reading

I found this surprising (emphasis mine): The average outstanding student loan balance per borrower is $23,300. Again, there is substantial heterogeneity in balances of individual borrowers. The median balance of $12,800 is roughly half the average level, which indicates that a small fraction of people have balances significantly higher than the median. About one-quarter of Continue reading

The new Chronicle College Completion Site may be met with groans from people who think the wrong metrics have been chosen or that necessary detail has been omitted, but I think it’s wonderful. Sure, I’m not sure that cost per degree should be the central figure in the debate. I think cost per degree probably does Continue reading