Education is a field of dreams, and so is educational research. Educators dream of schools that can improve the lives of students, solve social problems, and enrich the quality of life; educational researchers dream that their studies will enhance the effectiveness of schools in achieving these worthy goals. Both fields draw recruits who see the…

In this essay David Labaree explores the historical and sociological elements that have made educational researchers dependent on statistics. He shows that educational research as a domain, with its focus on a radically soft and thoroughly applied form of knowledge and with its low academic standing, fits the pattern in which weak professions have…