In response to a Presidential Executive Order, the National Mathematics Advisory Panel issued a controversial report in March 2008. The Report is significant because of its historical genesis, its subject matter--learning--and the strong position that the Report takes on the primacy of quantitative methods in education research. I briefly introduce the Report, and examine the argumentative grammar used to justify the Report's position on ``scientific evidence'' in mathematics education research. As appropriate, I will weave in points made by commentaries on the Report from leaders in the field. These commentaries will appear in a special December 2008 issue of the \textit{Educational Researcher} journal, for which I served as guest editor.