American schools are often the victims of numbers games because its education is in the hands of politicians, the populace, and pundits. How Americans view numbers, science, and research profoundly impacts the ability of politicians to manipulate our schools from pre-K through graduate education. Even in classrooms, teachers are routinely implementing flawed assessment strategies based on misguided assumptions about numbers and commonly held statistical truths. American educators need to step out from under the restrictive mandates of politicians and their growing mania for measuring students - they need to leave the numbers games behind and take control of their profession.