Merit · Measurement · Opportunity
For more than thirty years, I've worked inside the systems that use metrics to make judgments, asking inconvenient questions about whether we should be calling those metrics merit.
For more than thirty years, I've worked inside the systems that use metrics to make judgments, asking inconvenient questions about whether we should be calling those metrics merit.
A math readiness report at UCSD, an open letter from math faculty across the UC system, and a wave of national coverage that treated an internal signal as a verdict. Crisis Construction tracks how the story moved, what got amplified, and what a century of the same pattern, from Brigham to A Nation at Risk to now, predicts happens next.
Explore Crisis Construction →The Pattern
Report → amplification → policy momentum the data can't support.
Nine panels: the history, the reports, the public reaction at each stage, the open letter, the rebuttal, and where this leaves testing policy. Includes a searchable explorer of the open letter's signers.
Pillar 01
A number that looks precise is often an idea dressed up as a fact. Rankings, test scores, and GPA clarify. They don't replace judgment.
Pillar 02
The differences we measure at 16 were shaped long before test day. Score gaps reflect accumulated advantage, not fixed ability.
Pillar 03
I navigate the system I'm handed. I fight for the system I want. This is the practical register: what families, students, and institutions can actually do.
This is the kind of conversation I bring to campuses, conferences, and boards.
Book a talk →"All rankings are some form of personal opinion filtered through mathematics, so it’s a subjective assessment of quality."
Inside Higher Ed · September 2024
"These families who started on third base decided to steal home and pay off the refs to ensure that they beat the tag."
Vanity Fair · 2019
Cited, quoted, and featured in:
How It Actually Works
Rankings tell you what someone else thinks. Here's how to build a framework that actually serves your family.
What the Numbers Mean
Parents trust report cards over test scores, and they're not wrong to. What standardized test scores actually measure.
What the Numbers Mean
GPA is the metric families trust most. It's also the one colleges recalculate most aggressively.
Behind the Curtain
What LLMs actually do, and why the name we've given them oversells it.
Surviving Standardization · the book, in progress.
About the book →
