It was after 6 on a Tuesday evening when I got a text from one of my school administrators: I was required to chaperone a school dance that Friday until 9 p.m. along with other teachers on my team. So much for date night, I thought, knowing that I would have to cancel my plans. It’s not that I don’t actually enjoy school dances. But in most lines of work without six-figure salaries, being required to work beyond contract hours means receiving overtime pay. Nothing of the sort was provided here, not even a meal.

Alan Schoenfeld from the University of California, Berkeley, discusses his career in mathematics education research.Alan's professional webpageAlan's Google Scholar pageList of episodes

More U.S. eighth grade students take algebra today than any other math course. However, universal eighth grade algebra is creating more problems than it solves, writes Tom Loveless, as some 120,000 mi...