Frazz by Jef Mallett for September 29, 2012

But would the standardized test of the superintendent’s dreams really have a flat bell curve? That would mean a uniform distribution of scores—exactly the same number of kids at every possible score from zero to 100 percent, which hardly seems like a good outcome! The “ideal” curve would seem to be one that’s an impulse function: everybody getting every question right. Or, at least, a curve with 90 percent of the scores above the midpoint (the Lake Wobegon curve, where all the children are above average)…