Tag: Data-Driven
When Equity Looks Inequitable: the Base-Rate Fallacy
My latest article (or “story,” or “piece” – I can’t figure out the vernacular to save my life) is at FEE. This one is about a common error in our discussions of gender and race, and uses a local/Minnesota example
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Does Home-Ice Advantage Melt without Fans?
My latest data-driven article at College Hockey News asks whether fans actually contribute to home-ice advantage in college hockey. (A season of empty arenas has served as an unintentional experiment — one we’ll hopefully never repeat.) P.
Read MoreTeachers of Color: When More Is Never Enough
As nice as it sounds to spend millions of dollars to recruit more teachers of color, some pesky demographics and arithmetic get in the way. My latest in the Duluth News Tribune. P. A. Jensen (@RuralityChecker) lives in
Read MoreDo Teams that Lose More Also Lose by More?
Or, do teams that win more win by more? My latest data-driven article at College Hockey News answers both questions by examining game data from the last seven seasons of NCAA Division-I men’s hockey. P. A. Jensen
Read MorePattern Recognition: Trends in Goal-Scoring among College-Hockey Conferences
Do some conferences in men’s college hockey score more goals than others? Have more lopsided margins of victory? More ties? My latest at College Hockey News crunches the numbers. P. A. Jensen (@PrideOnIceCream) lives in Minnesota with his wife and
Read MoreNot-So-Photo Finish: Competitive Balance within College-Hockey Conferences
I recently wrote a data-driven article for College Hockey News about whether some conferences’ championship races are routinely more competitive than others. As always, thanks for reading. P. A. Jensen (@PrideOnIceCream) lives in Minnesota with his wife
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Losing the Race in College Sports (Part 1 of 3): The Myth of Overrepresentation
Discussions of race in college sports often rely on faulty statistics. One recent, high-profile example comes from The Atlantic, where sports columnist Jemele Hill offered an intriguing thought experiment involving black student-athletes and historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Unfortunately,
Read MoreLosing the Race in College Sports (Part 2 of 3): Race Is Just Part of the Story
The first installment in this series examined whether black, male student-athletes, and black students generally, are fairly represented on campuses of universities that participate in major-conference athletics. This part of the series focuses on their performances in the classroom compared
Read MoreLosing the Race in College Sports (Part 3 of 3): Big-Money Sports vs. the Classroom
The first installment in this series examined whether black, male student-athletes, and black students generally, are fairly represented on campuses of universities that participate in major-conference athletics. The second installment analyzed the effects of race on classroom performance, both among
Read MorePoll-Wise: Can Polls Predict College Hockey’s National Tournament Better than the PairWise?
Our editor has published an article on US College Hockey Online (USCHO.com) about whether polls or computer-based rankings are better at predicting the national-tournament field in college hockey. P. A. Jensen is editor of RuralityCheck.com. He lives in
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A Bite at the Apple: The Arithmetic of Minority Teachers
Both Democrats and Republicans like to talk about increasing the number of minority teachers. The stated reasons vary, but let’s get right to the specifics: in Minnesota, an education coalition is asking the state for $80m to help increase the
Read MoreHome, Sheet Home
Not all home-field advantages are created equal. Some don’t even exist. Major-league baseball has a beloved quirk: no two ballparks are the same. Different ballparks have different sizes of outfields (e.g. the huge outfields in Detroit), different heights of outfield
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The Rivals That Never Play
Professional and college football teams do not compete on the field, but they do compete at the state capitol. Just ask the taxpayers of Minnesota, who recently agreed to pay for two brand new football stadiums. The stadiums sit just
Read MorePoll Faulting
In “Poll Faulting: A Surprising Reason Why Preseason Polls Can Be Wrong,” I examined an unexpected reason for error in preseason polls. The article is data-driven, but casual fans can follow. It appeared on USCHO.com–please check it out here.
Read MoreOut of Realignment
In “Out of Realignment: Looking at Competitive Balance in College-Hockey Conferences,” I examined how the “new” conferences in college hockey stacked up in terms of past success, both recent and not-so-recent. It’s data-driven, but the casual fan can follow. The
Read MoreLeveling the Ice
In “Leveling the Ice: Looking at Parity in College Hockey’s National Tournament,” I analyzed the common perception (at least among fans of college hockey) that more and more teams are winning in the national tournament. It’s data-driven, but casual fans
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Within Reach: The Myth of Unaffordable Housing
Be careful, fair readers—the Internet is full of some pretty bizarre stuff. Some of that stuff comes from an outfit called the National Low Income Housing Coalition. It’s okay to view on your work computer, but it’s bizarre, nonetheless. The
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The Founders Emphasized States’ Rights, but the States Were the Size of Cities Today.
Our founding fathers intentionally limited the power of the federal government, fearing it was too big. Instead, they chose to defer most authority to the states. At that time, the entire country had fewer people than modern-day Cook County, Illinois.
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From Coasts to Countryside, There Can Be No Single Living Wage
“The current federal minimum wage is starvation pay and must become a living wage. We must increase it to fifteen dollars an hour over the next several years.” So says Bernie Sanders on his website, summarizing a common view within
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