Jason Kamras
Encyclopedia
National Teacher of the Year
The National Teacher of the Year is a professional award in the United States. The program began in 1952, as a project by the Council of Chief State School Officers , and aims to reward excellence in teaching...
. He is the Chief of the Office of Human Capital and former director of human capital strategy for teachers in D.C. Public Schools, and was an adviser on education policy to the Barack Obama presidential campaign. Before that, he served as a seventh-grade mathematics teacher at John Philip Sousa Middle School in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
for eight years.
During his 9-year career, he has taught mathematics and social studies to 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. After graduating from Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
summa cum laude with a degree in public policy
Public policy
Public policy as government action is generally the principled guide to action taken by the administrative or executive branches of the state with regard to a class of issues in a manner consistent with law and institutional customs. In general, the foundation is the pertinent national and...
in 1995, Kamras joined Teach For America
Teach For America
Teach For America is an American non-profit organization that aims to eliminate educational inequity by enlisting the nation's most promising future leaders to teach for two or more years in low-income communities throughout the United States...
, which placed him at Sousa. He piloted changes in the mathematics curriculum that helped the percentage of students scoring "below basic" on the Stanford 9 test to fall from 80 percent to 40 percent in one year.He successfully lobbied Sousa administrators to double the amount of class time spent on math. In addition, he is the founder of the EXPOSE camera club, which teaches students to use digital photography
Digital photography
Digital photography is a form of photography that uses an array of light sensitive sensors to capture the image focused by the lens, as opposed to an exposure on light sensitive film...
to depict their lives. This project earned him the Mayor's Art Award for Outstanding Contributions to Arts Education. Kamras earned his master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education
The Harvard Graduate School of Education is one of the graduate schools of Harvard University, and is one of the top schools of education in the United States. It was founded in 1920, the same year it invented the Ed.D...
in 2000.
Kamras views teachers as civil rights activists. Sousa was segregated until a 1954 challenge to its status led to the desegregation
Desegregation
Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups usually referring to races. This is most commonly used in reference to the United States. Desegregation was long a focus of the American Civil Rights Movement, both before and after the United States Supreme Court's decision in...
of DC public schools. "To honor the school's unique role in the movement, I feel compelled to guarantee that it serves as an agent of social change, advancing those who have been ignored or constrained," he says. Kamras is also a digital rights
Digital rights
The term digital rights describes the permissions of individuals legitimately to perform actions involving the use of a computer, any electronic device, or a communications network...
advocate for teachers and believes every educator should have the same tools he uses: a laptop, Internet access, an LCD projector, inexpensive student-response devices for classroom polling, and a smart whiteboard
Whiteboard
A whiteboard is a name for any glossy, usually white surface for nonpermanent markings. Whiteboards are analogous to chalkboards, allowing rapid marking and erasing of markings on their surface...
for interactive classroom displays.
External links
- Charlie RoseCharlie RoseCharles Peete "Charlie" Rose, Jr. is an American television talk show host and journalist. Since 1991 he has hosted Charlie Rose, an interview show distributed nationally by PBS since 1993...
Jason Kamras is now a special assistant to the chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools - Jason Kamras on Performance Pay