GOF 4.8 and 4.10

4.8 Consider the case described in Section 4.1.2, in which a boy was assumed to be a drug abuser because two schools used different disciplinary codes in their computerized records.

a) Is this kind of problem more likely to occur with computerized record than with paper records? Why. or why not?

Yes. Paper records would probably be reviewed by a person and then filed away; however, a computer file sent via internet can just be dragged and dropped into a a file with all the student records.

b) Describe some policies or practices that can help prevent such problems.

Each school could send their key of acronyms to the other schools when records are sent. This would ensure the abbreviations would be checked and information would be verified.

4.10 Consider the standardized-test score-reporting error discussed in the box in Section 4.1.3. Suppose the scores had been reported to the schools as significantly higher, rather than lower, than the correct scores. Do you think the schools would have questions the scores? Do you think the error would have been discovered? If so, how? Give a few examples of situations where you think computer errors would not be reported. for each example, give your reason (e.g., optimism, ignorance, gullibility, dishonesty.)

Yes, I think they would have questioned the scores. Yes the error probably would have been found. They could have checked the class' scores from the previous years and based on scores from the previous class they could have estimated the correct range of scores and back checked it these scores.