Jack Kimble is a fictional US politician who is known for his satirical tweets that mock the ignorance and incompetence of some real politicians. One of his most famous tweets was about the education crisis in America, where he claimed that nearly 25% of American students are in the bottom quartile in reading and math on standardized tests. This tweet went viral and received thousands of replies, mostly pointing out the obvious flaw in his statement: 25% is by definition the bottom quartile, so there is nothing surprising or alarming about it.
What is a Quartile?
A quartile is a statistical term that divides a set of data into four equal groups, each containing 25% of the data. The first quartile (Q1) is the median of the lower half of the data, the second quartile (Q2) is the median of the whole data, the third quartile (Q3) is the median of the upper half of the data, and the fourth quartile (Q4) is the highest 25% of the data. For example, if we have a set of 10 numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, then the quartiles are:
- Q1 = 2.5 (the median of 1, 2, 3, 4)
- Q2 = 5.5 (the median of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
- Q3 = 8.5 (the median of 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
- Q4 = 10 (the highest 25% of the data)
Why Jack Kimble’s Tweet is Wrong?
Jack Kimble’s tweet implies that he expects the bottom quartile of American students to be less than 25% of the total student population, which is mathematically impossible. The bottom quartile is always 25% of the data, no matter how the data is distributed. For example, if we have a set of 100 students with test scores ranging from 0 to 100, then the bottom quartile will always be the 25 students with the lowest scores, regardless of whether their scores are 0, 1, 2, …, 24 or 10, 11, 12, …, 34 or any other combination. The only way to have less than 25% of the students in the bottom quartile is to have less than 100 students in total, which is not the case for the US education system.
What Jack Kimble Should Have Said?
If Jack Kimble wanted to make a valid point about the poor performance of American students on standardized tests, he should have used a different measure of comparison, such as the mean, the median, the standard deviation, or the percentile rank. For example, he could have said:
- Nearly 25% of American students score below the mean in reading and math on standardized tests.
- The median score of American students in reading and math on standardized tests is below the international average.
- The standard deviation of American students’ scores in reading and math on standardized tests is high, indicating a large variation in performance.
- Nearly 25% of American students rank below the 25th percentile in reading and math on standardized tests compared to other countries.
These statements would have been more accurate and meaningful than Jack Kimble’s tweet, and would have also avoided the ridicule and criticism that he received from the online community.
Conclusion
Jack Kimble quartile is a term that refers to a mathematical error made by a fictional US politician who claimed that nearly 25% of American students are in the bottom quartile in reading and math on standardized tests. This statement is nonsensical and illogical, as the bottom quartile is always 25% of the data by definition. Jack Kimble’s tweet was intended to be a satire of the real politicians who make ignorant and incompetent statements, but it also served as a lesson on the importance of understanding basic statistics and using appropriate measures of comparison.