The promise of critical pedagogy lies in its capacity to change lives as librarians try new ways of thinking and teaching that challenge systems of power that privilege some and not others. In the last ten years, critical pedagogy has moved from the margins to the center, most clearly in its influence on the new "Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education." Frames like Information has Value and Authority is Constructed have long been tenets of critical voices in the field, voices that can now be heard emanating from the center of our professional lives. And yet, critical approaches to teaching and learning face acute challenges from a higher education environment that increasingly values teaching and learning by the numbers, tying everything from accreditation to book budgets to quantifiable outcomes. Surfacing these tensions can inform the actions librarians take in the classroom.