Author Archives: Joye Walker

Iowa Education Challenges

Posted on 05/08/2026 by Joye Walker

Iowa has a tough combination of a governor and legislative majority who are anti-public schools and anti-teacher but at the same time, a department of education that marches to the Common Core drum and has managed to dumb down the … Continue reading →

Posted in Common Core, constructivism, Curriculum & Instruction, Education policy, Governance, Higher Education, Joye Walker, K-12, math, Mathematics, partisanship | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Comments on Hung-Hsi Wu’s “What is school mathematics?”

Posted on 12/04/2026 by Joye Walker

I read a document by Hung-Hsi Wu entitled “What is school mathematics?” I recall reading about some of Wu’s ideas back in the 1990s when I worked for the Department of Mathematics at The University of Iowa. Since that time, … Continue reading →

Posted in Curriculum & Instruction, Higher Education, Joye Walker, K-12, math, Mathematics | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

On Common Core and Educational Testing

Posted on 24/11/2025 by Joye Walker

Common Core has contributed greatly to decline in academic achievement. K-6 teachers use it as a guide, and feel that it is more of a ceiling to reach rather than a basement to stay above. I found that as I … Continue reading →

Posted in College prep, Common Core, Curriculum & Instruction, Education Reform, Joye Walker, K-12, math, Mathematics, teachers | Leave a comment

Equitable Grading

Posted on 04/09/2025 by Joye Walker

I think most of these policies are not good for math students. I am OK with test retakes (one per test) if a student scored below 75% on a test, and the maximum possible retake score is 75%. It encourages … Continue reading →

Posted in Curriculum & Instruction, Ethics, Joye Walker, K-12, Mathematics, teachers | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Math Anxiety

Posted on 13/01/2025 by Joye Walker

I dealt with test anxiety among my honors students when I was teaching. From my perspective, it mostly arose from one of the following situations: I saw many students over the years deal with these sorts of issues. The first … Continue reading →

Posted in College prep, Curriculum & Instruction, Joye Walker, K-12, math, Mathematics, Testing/Assessment | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Comments on Zearn’s “Myth of the Math Kid”

Posted on 15/08/2024 by Joye Walker

https://time.com/7008332/math-kid-myth-essay/ I really find these kinds of articles tiresome, because the accusations or “myths” as expressed by Shalinee Sharma, are assumptions made by people who are generalizing about all math teaching in order to peddle their programs. The first myth … Continue reading →

Posted in Curriculum & Instruction, Education journalism, Joye Walker, K-12, math, Mathematics, STEM | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Iowa Academic Standards Hold Teachers Hostage

Posted on 31/10/2022 by Joye Walker

By Joye Walker I retired more than a year ago, giving me many months to process the discomfort I felt in my last few years of teaching. It was a difficult time for many reasons, but one big reason stands … Continue reading →

Posted in Common Core, Curriculum & Instruction, Joye Walker, K-12, math, Mathematics, STEM | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The absolute worst “real world” problem I have ever encountered

Posted on 27/05/2022 by Joye Walker

by Joye Walker It was in the UCSMP Algebra 2 book and I encountered it during my first year of teaching. Here was the opening linear programming example. *** Stuart Dent decided to investigate one of his typical meals, fried … Continue reading →

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