The Tyranny of Metrics

by Jerry Z. Muller

General improvements in schooling do not therefore lead to greater equality of outcomes. As the political scientist Edward Banfield noted a generation ago, “All education favors the middle- and upper-class child, because to be middle- or upper-class is to have qualities that make one particularly educable.” Improvements in the quality of schools may elevate overall educational outcomes, but they tend to increase, rather than diminish, the gap in achievement between children from families with different levels of human capital.26 Such outcomes might lead one to conclude that the achievement gap cannot in fact be closed by education—and that the reasons lie beyond the schoolhouse door. Yet measuring continues unabated. That is perhaps because, as Banfield noted, the idea that some problems are insoluble is morally unacceptable to a substantial portion of educated Americans.27 When it comes to gaps in school achievement, it seems that in the absence of discernable progress in results, the resources devoted to ongoing measurement becomes itself a sign of moral earnestness.