This paper dramatizes the complexity and the problems involved in calculating the rates of student dropouts from school. To compare the dropout formulas used by various agencies, states, and local school systems, responses from a national survey are presented and used to calculate a range of dropout rates for the Austin (Texas) public schools. By…

The use of computational diagrams and nomographs for the calculations that frequently occur in college administration is examined. Steps in constructing a nomograph and a four-dimensional computational diagram are detailed, and uses of three- and four-dimensional diagrams are covered. Diagrams and nomographs are useful in the following cases: (1)…

This activity guide is a supplement to the November 1996 issue of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Student Math Notes. It contains a series of problems based on one main story problem. Using this problem and the other problems contained in the guide based on it, students explore different mathematical concepts such as graph theory,…

Abstracts of 12 mathematics education research reports and critical comments (by the abstractors) about the reports are provided in this issue of Investigations in Mathematics Education. The reports are: "More Precisely Defining and Measuring the Order-Irrelevance Principle" (Arthur Baroody); "Children's Relative Number Judgments:…

Fourteen research reports related to mathematics education are abstracted and analyzed. Five of the reports deal with various student characteristics, four with teaching techniques, two with calculators, and one each with placement, open education, and teacher education. Research related to mathematics education which was reported in RIE and CIJE…

This issue contains abstracts and critical comments for 11 articles. Three articles focus on problem solving; the remainder concern understanding of the equals sign, mathematical structure, mathematical abilities, the role of language in tasks involving sets, sex differences in mathematical errors, subtraction, algorithms as schemes, and…

A set of articles with the theme "Mathematics for Real Life" is presented. These article titles are: (1) Teaching Mathematics as a Tool for Problem Solving; (2) New Math or New Education; (3) Hand Calculators and Math in Primary School; (4) Mass Media in the Mathematical Training of Polish Primary Teachers; (5) The Goals of Mathematics Teaching in…

This issue of the journal contains abstracts and critical comments for 10 published reports on research in mathematics education. The reports concern children's school mobility and achievement, preservice teachers' sources of decisions, spatial visualization in boys and girls, rote versus conceptual emphases in teaching probability, using drawings…

This publication is a compilation of abstracts and critical comments for 12 published investigations in mathematics education. Information for each study includes: purpose; rationale; research design and procedures; findings; and interpretations. For each study abstractor's comments also provide a brief critique. Topics include: planning problem…

Focusing primarily on current problem areas in mathematics instruction, this third yearbook of the Finnish Association of Mathematics and Science Education Research contains five articles addressing four themes in mathematics education. The first theme is concerned with proportional reasoning in mathematics teaching and describes school test…

An editorial and abstracts for 12 research reports are contained in this issue. The editorial by Robert E. Reys focuses on the dangers of publishing poor research. The abstracts, each with a critique, concern research on a game for logical reasoning, wait-time and sex differences, vocabulary instruction on ratio and proportion, male-female…

This issue contains abstracts and critical comments on 11 articles, plus an editorial comment entitled "A Teacher Shortage?". Studies included concern solution processes on addition and subtraction examples; numerical rule induction; individual differences in performance on manipulative, pictorial, and symbolic tasks; the effect of a…

The purposes of the study were to (1) identify formulas currently used for justifying budget requests or allocating funds for operating expenses of state-supported colleges and universities; (2) provide a comparative analysis of each formula with respect to the functional budget areas recognized, the base and formula factors used, methods of…