Statistical methods applied to education : a textbook for students of education in the quantitative study of school problems / by Harold O. Rugg.

  • Harold Rugg
Date:
[1917?]
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Statistical methods applied to education : a textbook for students of education in the quantitative study of school problems / by Harold O. Rugg. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the limited space of this textbook, already devoted to more important methods. Furthermore, it is doubtful if the for- mer of these methods will be used by more than a very small fraction of those working in educational research in our own generation. These persons should turn to Yule’s complete original discussion. In regard to the latter of the two sets of methods, the writer is one of those who are still skeptical of the use of methods of “‘correcting”’ coefficients (the validity of which has not been established) which have been com- puted from material collected under conditions subject to such gross inaccuracies as are the conditions of educational research. It is fundamental to a clear comprehension of the writer’s point of view to know that this book is based upon the doc- trine that statistical methods in themselves prove nothing, — that the methods selected for use in a particular situation must agree with the logic of that situation: in a word, that statistical methods are merely quantitative devices which we can use to refine our thinking about complex masses of data, and to refine our methods of expression. The example of Leonard P. Ayres in his discriminating use of statistical methods in school research, and his con- stant subordination of the exhibition of statistical form to clearness and simplicity of presentation, has been a potent factor in determining the writer’s point of view, and has wrought a definite effect upon his practice. Haroip O. Ruaa. ScHoot oF EpucatTIoN, UnNIvERSITY OF CHICAGO, August 22, 1917. 4