Numbers Games: Measuring and Mandating American Education

American schools are often the victims of numbers games because its education is in the hands of politicians, the populace, and pundits. How Americans view numbers, science, and research profoundly impacts the ability of politicians to manipulate our schools from pre-K through graduate education. Even in classrooms, teachers are routinely implementing flawed assessment strategies based on misguided assumptions about numbers and commonly held statistical truths. American educators need to step out from under the restrictive mandates of politicians and their growing mania for measuring students – they need to leave the numbers games behind and take control of their profession.

The Author: P. L. Thomas, Assistant Professor of Education, is the author of an educational biography of progressive English educator Lou LaBrant. He received his Ed.D. from the University of South Carolina. After teaching public school English for eighteen years, he is the English Education Specialist at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, where he conducts research and writes on literacy, the impact of poverty on learning, and teacher education.