The differences between the authors of the Coleman report and their critics make clear why the effectiveness of schools will always remain controversial as long as inferential statistics are employed to determine it. Controversy is inevitable when measurement requires the satisfaction of assumptions antithetical to the teaching processes through…

Presented is a rationale for producing intelligent behavior through operant conditioning rather than predicting it by means of standardized intelligence tests which are said to require circumstances explicitly precluding intervention. (GW)

This paper argues that to be appropriate the evaluation of teaching must occur under circumstances entirely free of the limitations which inferential statistics necessarily impose on teaching. Regardless of whether the statistical, design, and treatment assumptions required for the valid use of inferential statistics in education are met,…