As a prelude to the 2014 NCTM Research Conference, "Linking Research and Practice," the editor reminds the JRME community about the responsibility that researchers bear in linking research and practice. Suggestions are also made about the role that JRME might play.

The NCTM Research Committee invited Richard Lesh, instrumental in the founding of the NCTM Research Presession, to join the members of the current Research Committee in reflecting on its formation, the hopes he and others had in mind when they started it, and the current state and future of research in the field.

This commentary articulates the need to investigate problems of mathematics instruction at community colleges. The authors briefly describe some features of this often-ignored institution and the current status of research. They also make an argument for how investigations of instruction in this setting can both advance understanding of this particular context and give practitioners tools to deal with pressures from policymakers to show short-term results.

This article presents results of a research study. Sixty-one first graders’ responses to interview questions about negative integer values and order and directed magnitudes were examined to characterize the students’ mental models. The models reveal that initially, students overrelied on various combinations of whole-number principles as they tried to understand negative integers. However, a significant number of students later developed formal mental models.

This study investigates relationships between teacher characteristics and teachers’ beliefs about mathematics teaching and learning and the extent to which teachers claim awareness of their students’ mathematical dispositions. Regression analyses revealed statistically significant relationships between teachers’ beliefs and awareness and teachers’ mathematical knowledge, special education certification, race, gender, and the percentage of their students with free and reduced meal status.