The purpose of this commentary is to acknowledge, illuminate, and counter the noticeable silences in the investigations of mathematics education researchers who conduct equity research with Black communities and other marginalized groups. For far too long, these communities have experienced a lengthy and complicated history of structural barriers;…

The authors present two sets of replication studies and aim to confirm, refute, and expand prior work.

There are great opportunities and challenges to sharing large-scale mathematics classroom observation data. This Research Commentary describes the methodological opportunities and challenges and provides a specific example from a mathematics education research project to illustrate how the research questions and framework drove observational…

Many studies in mathematics education research occur with a nonrepresentative sample and are never replicated. To challenge this paradigm, I designed a large-scale study evaluating student conceptions in group theory that surveyed a national, representative sample of students. By replicating questions previously used to build theory around student…

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) is committed to strengthening relations between research and practice and to the development of a coherent knowledge base that is usable in practice. The need to work toward connection and coherence is not unique to the field of mathematics education. Fields such as medicine, software…

This "Research Commentary" explores the roles of theoretical and empirical work in the development of productive lines of research by elaborating on 3 main points. First, the dialectic between theory and empirical practice is highly productive for both: Theory is enriched by close attention to data, and one's understanding of empirical issues is…

Currently, there are more theories of learning in use in mathematics education research than ever before (Lerman & Tsatsaroni, 2004). Although this is a positive sign for the field, it also has brought with it a set of challenges. In this article, I identify some of these challenges and consider how mathematics education researchers might think…

Recent federal education policies and reports have generated considerable debate about the meaning, methods, and goals of "scientific research" in mathematics education. Concentrating on the critical problem of determining which educational programs and practices reliably improve students' mathematics achievement, these policies and reports focus…

Research on curricular choices has attracted widespread attention and merits increased investment by the research community. Multiple studies, publications, conferences, and a multicampus center (The Show-Me Project, n.d.) speak to the need to discuss what is taught in the classrooms and to whom, how, and when. Since the 1990s, with the creation…

All fields of research need to reconsider, on an ongoing basis, their standards for research quality. At the present time in mathematics education, such discussion is particularly critical to the ongoing growth and strength of the field. Mathematics education research has evolved significantly in the last 20 years. The most sweeping change has…

A description of the use of power analysis in controlling the probability of a Type II error, and hence in the construction of a suitable research design, is given. (MN)

A revision of the August 1976 set of criteria for evaluating research proposals and reports, issued by the research advisory Committee of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, is given. (MN)

A plan for evaluating the effectiveness of the Agenda for Action of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics is presented. Major dimensions of the evaluation model, research questions related to each agenda recommendation, approaches to an evaluation, and the dissemination of the agenda are considered. (MNS)

Advantages and disadvantages of nonexperimental paradigms in mathematics education are discussed. Suggestions are made for action toward establishing such designs as quality research. (MP)

Argues for increased usage of non-linear regression models which could account for a greater percentage of the variance in the data than do linear models in educational studies. (JP)