This article analyzes the ideas and the work of Anísio Teixeira in the 1920s and 1930s, focusing on his views about the value of measurement for educational reform in Brazil. Considering that the thinking and practices of Teixeira should be understood in the context in which it was developed, the study presents the history of the presence of psychological knowledge in education, with special attention to the entrance of the Psychometrics in the New School movement. The paper concludes that, by defending the use of measurement, Teixeira has remained true to the goal of the New School that required to diagnoses scientifically the school universe, which was necessary to respond to the growing demand for schooling and the educational disabilities of the Brazilian educational institutions.
History of Brazilian Education; New School; Anísio Teixeira; Psychology; Psychometrics