Well, many scholars have criticized this fact. forbes heat. What about their complaints? I guess the point is that “2-Sigma” Bloom is 40 years old. There is also recent research showing real (if fairly small) benefits of private education. Therefore, to refute von Hippel's claims is either misleading or mean-spirited. Criticisms of Bloom (again, they make it seem like I'm trying to disparage tutoring, which is odd considering how hard I've tried to explore its potential benefits and what it takes to communicate them effectively here, here, here, and here It got me thinking 🙂 Since there's a good 2020 meta-analysis from the National Bureau of Economics Research that found real benefits of private education (as I mentioned in my column), there's already up-to-date research that everyone can trust. You seemed to think you knew what you were talking about.
Talk about a charmingly detached view of things. I understand why academics would view a four-year-old NBER paper as something that should be common knowledge, but it isn't. And what are the different experimental studies incorporated into the meta-analysis? They are not even common sense. In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that few education leaders, advocates, or policymakers have read what my outraged correspondents have deemed widely known.
More importantly, there is There is still widespread familiarity with the “2-Sigma” argument. This is true even if those who absorb the argument do not know where it came from. They just tend to assume it reflects cutting-edge research. Von Hippel noted how Sal Khan used Bloom's discovery as the title of a 2023 TedX talk announcing the launch of Khanmigo, an AI-based teacher robot.
In a February episode of the wildly popular “Ben and Marc Show” podcast, tech investor Marc Andreessen argued that “there is one educational intervention technology that reliably produces better results, the so-called Two Sigma.” What was it? Of course, it is ‘one-on-one tutoring’.
A few years ago, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Chan Zuckerberg Institute collaborated to pursue personalized learning strategies that could increase math achievement. Building on Bloom, they wrote that their goal was to “improve at least two standard deviations” in “math proficiency.”
Where do influencers and decision-makers get their Two Sigma confidence? At conferences, in conversations with suppliers, or in webinars with donors and enthusiasts. Basically it's in tap water.