From the stand point of social justice, a mathematical model or algorithm seeks to quantify traits or characteristics of individuals or groups to reinforce positive outcomes for society. For example, a simple model like interacting with my friends. Some friends likes jokes, some are more serious, and some are more relaxed, so when interacting with them, I have to use the informations I have about what they like and dislike, their needs, and their situations and many other factors taken into account to try to make the best possible interactions. A much larger models would be used in fields such as the national economy- gathering datas on the flow of the economy to best predict the most optimal path for the nation.
What is a WMD?
Weapons of math destruction, explained by O’Neil, are mathematical models or algorithms that seeks to classify traits such as the quality of teachers or trustworthiness of employees, but such models have destructive outcomes. They do not display transparency, fairness, and in large scale be destructive for society. WMDs are often made with a desired outcome in mind so when the model is built, it is full of bias and datas that does not always take into account other important factors. WMDs are an important part of society as they can scale into serious social justice issues.
Factors of Ranking
College ranking is one of the major factor in a student’s decision in choosing a certain college to attend. To make a liberal arts college ranking model, students graduation and retention rates, social mobility, faculty resources, financial resources, student performance, and reputations. The students graduation and retention rates of a liberal arts college should perhaps be the biggest factor in a ranking model. A degree completion is the biggest reason for colleges and that is way a high graduation and retention rate of students is extremely important. Social mobility refers to granting students the necessary aid and loans to attend and graduate without putting heavy financial burdens on students. Financial resources would be in the realm of scholarships and grants. These factors are also important in ranking colleges. Faculty resources and student performance would also weigh in on the ranking model. Another important factor would be the college’s reputation. For example, a college known for being innovative in its teaching would score high in this category. These factors are what I believe should be in the ranking model of liberal arts colleges.
David J's LC Blog 
Your blog is very interesting. In the section of “What is the model”, you added an example from our daily life. This example is very helpful to understand the concept of the model. In the section of WMD, you well summarized the meaning of WMD by explaining three factors of WMD and bias. In the section of liberal arts ranking, mainly I agree with your ranking factors, but these factors seem for general college ranking. I want to know what do you think about the features or important factors of liberal arts college. Overall, I enjoyed reading your blog.
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Thank you! I believe the importance of liberal arts college is that they provide a wide range of education. The variety of classes provided by liberal arts college is one of the main factors of what makes them ‘liberal arts’.
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