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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 fifth of NCTM's strategic priorities states, “Bring existing research into the classroom, and identify and encourage research that addresses the needs of classroom practice” (NCTM, 2008). The need to work toward connection and coherence is not unique to the field of mathematics education. Fields such as medicine (e.g., Clancy, 2007), software engineering (e.g., Gorschek, Garre, Larsson, & Wohlin, 2006), and social work (e.g., Hess & Mullen, 1995) routinely attend to these issues. Researchers in many fields strive to find new ways or to engage more effectively through existing means to enhance coherence and connection. In a sense, this is not a goal that can be achieved definitively, but one that requires persistent engagement. In education, the constant flux of variables in the system, such as curriculum, goals for student learning, and school contexts, requires that new connections between research and practice be investigated and that old connections be reexamined. Changes in educational contexts open new territory in need of study and also challenge the coherence of explanations grounded in previous research. In this way, attention of the field to connection and coherence is neither unique to mathematics education nor an effort due solely to inadequacies of research efforts in the past.

I do not think any thoughtful researcher today believes that experiments or randomized field trials are the “gold standard” for addressing all the important questions in educational research. Yet, because these designs are now required by the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and are being strongly encouraged in other federal legislation and funding initiatives, scholars, practitioners, parents, and researchers must devote time and energy to fighting these designs when they are inappropriate or irrelevant, which is often the case. Despite long-standing objections from prominent methodologists and reservations expressed by national groups and committees, key policymakers in the federal government are encouraging the pursuit of experimental designs primarily or exclusively (Eisenhart, 2005, p. 246).

Share news about happenings in the field of elementary school mathematics education, views on matters pertaining to teaching and learning mathematics in the early childhood or elementary school years, and reactions to previously published opinion pieces or articles. Find detailed department submission guidelines at www.nctm.org/tcmdepartments.