The elementary school arithmetic curriculum in America in the first half of the 20th century can be likened to a battleground in which shifting combinations of school superintendents, specialists, educational psychologists, teachers, curriculum specialists, and professors of education fought recurring skirmishes over what would be taught and how. (For a more genteel portrayal in teams of interest groups, see Stanic, 1983/1984, 1986a.) The great faith that most of these people repeatedly expressed in their writing was that scientific research studies would provide the means by which they could resolve their differences-or at least establish the superiority of their own position. their continued wrangling generated a great number of research studies.