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…

Almost 20 years ago, the author wrote--and then privately published--the two "Lake Woebegone" reports, named after Garrison Keillor's mythical Minnesota town where "all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average." The first "Lake Woebegone" report documented that all 50 states were testing above the…

Seven graduate students in a seminar on classroom computing received instruction in LOGO programming. Programming protocols were collected periodically and examined for errors and misconceptions; in-depth interviews were conducted in order to understand specific misconceptions better. As novice students transit from instruction to experience in…