Thursday, August 30, 2012

IBM Readies Watson for Your Pocket | CIO Today

IBM Readies Watson for Your Pocket | CIO Today: "Meyerson said that Watson 2.0 is in the works, being prepared to provide the back-end intelligence for smartphones and tablets. He told Bloomberg that the energy "it takes to make Watson work is dropping down like a stone," and he predicted that, "one day, you will have ready access to an incredible engine with a world knowledge base.""

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Wednesday, August 29, 2012

A new RCT look at educational vouchers

A new RCT look at educational vouchers: "From Matthew M. Chingos and Paul E. Peterson (pdf):

In the first study using a randomized experiment to measure the impact of school vouchers on college enrollment, we examine the college-going behavior through 2011 of students who participated in a voucher experiment as elementary school students in the late 1990s. We find no overall impacts on college enrollments but we do find large, statistically significant positive impacts on the college going of African American students who participated in the study. Our estimates indicate that using a voucher to attend private school increased the overall college enrollment rate among African Americans by 24 percent."

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