ABSTRACT
Schools are now inundated with statistical data. New technologies have allowed schools a much closer look at pupil performance and the performance of the school as a whole. But how reliable, useful or relevant are those data to the day to day work of teachers? How may they mislead? And what is the political context in which they are presented and validated? This chapter examines those issues, with a health warning as to the potential of statistics to deceive and a plea for a more self confident critique by schools speaking for the themselves.
