Kamras is More than Just the Teacher of the Year

Jason Kamras, Ed.M.'00, is the teacher that you get only once in life, the teacher that you never forget. He is the type of teacher who stays late after school to play chess with a student, who drives across the city to make sure that his student can get to class, and who encourages students to try new things. In 2005, at 31, Kamras was named the 55th National Teacher of the Year by the Council of Chief State School Officers, the ING FN-NAIC, and Scholastic Inc.

For eight years, Kamras has worked as a 7th and 8th grade math teacher at the John Philip Sousa Middle School in Washington D.C. During this time, he has made immense changes to the math curriculum which, in one year, resulted in a 40 percent drop in the number of students performing below proficiency on the Standard 9, a biannual achievement test given in math and reading to mark how much students learn throughout the year in D.C. public schools.

Education was always part of Kamras' life. His mother, a former teacher in New York City, always spoke of her school at home.  As the middle child of three boys, Kamras quips that he was born into the role of mediator.

But, what confirmed his interest in teaching occurred one summer on break from Princeton University, where he studied social policy. He took a summer job working with a public elementary school teacher on an enrichment program for low income and failing students in Sacramento, California. "I loved getting to do the stuff teachers do, like reading stories and mixing plaster of Paris," he remembers. The experience also exposed him to the harsh reality that many low-income children were already two to three grade levels behind. "It was clear that they were bright, but they just didn't have the opportunities that other children had," he says.

Despite that experience, Kamras came close to not entering the education profession. When his studies at Princeton were ending he strongly considered law school. "I didn't have a specific reason to go to law school," he says. "It just seemed like what you do when you're not sure and you graduate from Princeton."

While filling out the application, he kept reflecting on his experience that summer working with children.  "I couldn't get through the essays," he says. "Every time I began to write I started to think about teaching."

At that point in time, an application for Teach for America landed in his lap, and he discovered his calling. In the fall of 1996, he was placed at the Sousa School and has never left.

By his third year of teaching, Kamras says he felt like he had hit a plateau. To get reenergized and further develop his skills, he started exploring graduate schools, specifically technology education programs and education policy master's programs.

He chose HGSE because of the broad course offerings and the opportunity to design his own master's program combining policy and technology in education.

"[At HGSE] there was the opportunity to think more deeply about education not only in my practice, but also policy issues and where I saw myself in this education world and what I wanted to be doing," he says. "I think that was really good for me."

Balancing his studies between policy and pedagogy, Kamras cited Thompson Professor and Academic Dean Richard Murnane's course in policy as challenging him to think more deeply, critically, and systematically about education issues. "It was helpful and opened my eyes," he says.

After HGSE, Kamras returned to the Sousa School reinvigorated and ready to make changes that he ultimately considers philosophical. These changes were based upon his belief in maintaining high expectations for his students and accepting personal responsibility for their education. He immediately sought to make some changes in the Sousa curriculum.

"I think there are similar things that are happening in schools across the country. But, I think the biggest factors in our ability to help make gains were the two philosophical changes that we made," he says.

Some of the substantive changes included doubling the instruction time for math, so every student would attend math class twice a day for 45 minutes. This allowed the school to break math study into two areas: foundation skills and math concepts. "The problem is when children are so far behind, they never learn any of the basics, and then they go to high school and are in serious trouble.

"To me, a lot of the changes were common sense," Kamras continues. "You have kids four years behind in math. If you just give them 40 minutes and think, 'Oh, we didn't have enough time,' then do something about it. Give them more time."

The increased math time received some criticism from students and adults, who weren't sure that either could do almost two hours a day.

"I still feel that this idea of high expectations is so ubiquitous. In reality, it hasn't fully taken root when you look at what we're teaching and what we're expecting," he says. "We're not really holding to high expectations, but giving two hours of math a day is a concrete example for high expectations."

In addition, the school created its own curriculum. "We felt the textbooks weren't working," Kamras says. "We pulled from a lot of sources and tried to create activities based in a context relevant to their lives."

For example, Kamras, an avid photographer, used photography to teach math to students through concepts such as shutter speeds and aperture calculations. He even organized an after-school digital photography course called Expose (www.exposeprogram.org). "I felt photography was a way for them to tell their own stories without a filter of media and to get out in the city."

Kamras admits that it's hard being away from the classroom for the year [making Teacher of the Year appearances], but he is enjoying the opportunity to tell the story of his school. He says he wants to bring equity to children and being teacher of the year has allowed this pursuit.

Once Kamras completes his reign as teacher of the year, he plans to return to teaching, although he hasn't ruled out the possibility of becoming a principal or working on education policy.

"I'm passionate about policy and the broader issues, so likely I'd want to see change on a broader scale. I won't be satisfied just seeing this in my classroom," Kamras says. "On the other hand, teaching and making a difference in a classroom and school is a very powerful thing. I never want to overlook that."