Reports an analysis of Australian universities using academics' perceptions of their university-level environment. Focuses on a sample of 514 academics in 26 publicly funded universities who responded to the university-level environment questionnaires. Suggests that new universities must improve their level of research and scholarship to become…

This research compares the status of managerial accounting practices in public four-year colleges and universities and in private four-year colleges and universities. The investigators surveyed a national sample of chief financial officers (CFOs) at two points in time, 1998-99 and 2003-04. In 1998-99 CFOs representing private institutions reported…

Current accountability reform requires annual assessment for all students, including students with disabilities. Testing accommodations are one way to increase access to assessments while maintaining the validity of test scores. This paper provides findings from an exploratory logistic regression analysis of predictors of four accommodations used…

Current preschool learning guidelines, created in response to NCLB requirements, focus on three areas of human development in an effort to ensure that preschoolers are ready for kindergarten. This study examined four New England states' preschool learning guidelines, looking at how each detailed its support for preschoolers' development. The…

The "School Violence Survey" (SVS) was developed as an instrument to investigate students' perceptions of school environment, their experiences and interactions within diverse social groups, and their views on school violence issues including bullying. A total of 806 students across four Midwest high schools and middle schools completed the paper…

This paper examined whether year round schooling (YRS) in California had an effect upon the outcome and growth of schools' Academic Performance Index (API) scores. While many previous studies had examined the connection between YRS and academic achievement, most had lacked the statistical rigour required to provide reliable interpretations. As a…

Proposes to base research on a metaphor of thinking-as-communicating. Mathematical discourse is made special by two main factors: (a) exceptional reliance on symbolic artifacts as communication-mediating tools; and (b) particular meta-rules that regulate this type of communication. There is a better chance of accounting for some of the phenomena…

During the history of mathematics education at school, the answer of what counts as real mathematics varies. Real mathematics is any activity of participating in a mathematical practice. Uses Bakhtin's notion of speech genre for further analysis. Concludes that mathematical attitude is the link between the cultural historical dimension of…

Presents a cultural, discursive psychology for mathematics education that takes language and discursive practices as central in that meanings precede us and we are constituted within language and the associated practices, in the multiple settings within which we grow up and participate. (Author/MM)

Examines the multiple voices of educational reform in the discourse of a third grade classroom community. Integrates the social and the individual as well as the past, present, and future in analysis of the discourse in this classroom community. Discusses implications for understanding one of the dilemmas of educational reform and advancing…

Examines two days of teacher-led large group discussion in a 5th grade class about a mathematical question intended to support student exploration of relationships among fraction and decimal representations and rational numbers. Illuminates the teacher's work in supporting student thinking through the use of a mathematical question embedded in a…

Explores the co-shaping of public and private discourse and some of the circumstances under which one occasions the other in the evolution of mathematical thinking by pairs of 13-year-olds. Provides evidence that adolescents within novel problem situations can experience some difficulty in making their emergent thinking available to partners in…

Adopts a sociocultural perspective to investigate the role of discourse in children and teacher mathematical meaning making in a 5th grade inquiry classroom. Examines the process whereby individual and group developmental trajectories are constructed and allows exploration of the relationship between discourse and knowing. Argues for a more…

Comments on the papers presented in this special edition of this journal. Discusses the papers insofar as they have illuminated the agenda of a mathematics education researcher or served to move the community beyond the unproductive split between individual and social research perspectives. (Author/MM)

Comments on the papers presented in this special edition of this journal. The papers present a major step in conceptualizing what is happening in mathematics classrooms. Suggests that research on discourse in the mathematics classroom should proceed on the present high level of empirical analysis. (Author/MM)