Harper’s Index

Number of U.S. presidents who have held a Ph.D.: 1¹

Number who have said, "You teach a child to read and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test": 1²

Percentage change since 1999 in U.S. sales of hardcover books for adults and children, respectively: -12, +13³

Number of U.S. schools that use E-rater, a software program that reads and grades student essays: 95⁴

Number of these schools that are colleges or universities: 9⁵

Percentage change since 1999 in the number of U.S. public schools that are run by private companies: +111⁶

Percentage of U.S. employers who say that a high-school graduate "has at least learned the basics": 39⁷

Percentage of middle- and high-school students who say this: 77⁸

Ratio of the number of pupils per teacher in Michigan's schools to the number of inmates per guard in its prisons: 18:5⁹

Ratio of juveniles to police-officer "instructors" at a Florida sheriff's 22-hour weekend boot camp: 5:1¹⁰

Number of American states that permit public-school teachers to inflict corporal punishment on students: 23¹¹

Number of states in which biology classes are a high-school graduation requirement: 8¹²

Number in which foreign-language classes are required: 9¹³

Ratio of the average time it takes a male cardinal to learn a song to the time it takes a female: 3:1¹⁴

Estimated number of sign-language signs in the vocabulary of Koko, a San Francisco gorilla: 1,000¹⁵

Minimum number of baboons forced to smoke crack in a 1989 study testing the efficacy of cigarettes as a drug delivery device: 3¹⁶

Endowment a tobacco company gave a U.K. university last year for a "corporate social responsibility" center: £3,800,000¹⁷

Hours that Amherst College agreed to ban coffee last term as part of a student's performance piece about the drug war: 24¹⁸

Number of U.S. college students who were denied federal financial aid last year because of a prior drug conviction: 9,605¹⁹

Chance that a Denver middle-school student was suspended at least once during the 1999-2000 school year: 1 in 4²⁰

Chance that a U.S. sixth- to tenth-grader reports being bullied weekly: 1 in 11²¹

Chance that a sixth- to tenth-grader reports bullying others: 1 in 12²²

Percentage of U.S. ninth-grade boys who say we should stop "outsiders" from influencing American traditions and cultures: 53²³

Percentage of ninth-grade girls who say this: 36²⁴

Amount the federal government paid Harvard researchers in the 1990s to help design Russian market reforms: $40,000,000²⁵

Amount the head researchers invested in Russian securities during this period, prompting a federal lawsuit: $1,300,000²⁶

Number of Austrian skinheads who have attended college classes this year as an alternative to criminal prosecution: 33²⁷

Minimum number of countries in which at least half the children are no longer in school by the age of eleven: 11²⁸

Number of these countries whose foreign debt exceeds half their GDP: 8²⁹

Price of Bob Dylan's high-school essay on The Grapes of Wrath, from a New York City collectibles dealer: $35,000³⁰

Estimated number of times an adult must taste a disliked food before learning to like it: 10³¹

Percentage of Men's Health readers who say they have learned most of what they know about sex from television: 18³²

Chance that an eighty-year-old American is left-handed: 1 in 100³³

Chance that a ten-year-old is: 1 in 7³⁴

Percentage of African-American children in the South attending majority-white schools in 1976 and 1996, respectively: 38, 35³⁵

Maximum fine in 1829 for teaching an African American living in Georgia to read or write: $500³⁶

Amount the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, police began offering high-school students this year to inform on their classmates: $50³⁷

Prize awarded an Indiana University senior in April in a national "messiest college apartment" contest: $10,000³⁸

Minimum number of U.S. high schools whose students chose a custodian as a graduation speaker last spring: 2³⁹

Number of times the President has met with Miss America this year to discuss her interest in "character education": 2⁴⁰

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