...and in other news, 50% of our schoolchildren are performing at below average levels.
What's funny is that one of the articles actually points out that such kinds of statistic usually look *even worse* than that when they really aren't. (It's in
lesson 4: averages.) I'll bet that if you really looked at the statistical data, the real statement could be made into something like "70% of our schoolchildren are performing at below average levels". Read the article and you'll see what I mean. He gives a couple of good examples in the article, but the funny one is: "most people have an above average number of feet".
Too True, I ran across a NY reality website a couple days ago. The kind that specializes in multimillion co-ops that overlook Central Park.
A couple of the local stats were:
Avg Income $140k (sum$/folks)
Median Income $83k (amount 1/2 of folks make more or less than)
I don't think I had quite internalized the difference. Usually only one or the other is quoted depending on the spin desired.
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