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National Teacher of the Year calls for equity in education

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BY MARK RICE Staff Writer

The best way to improve learning in struggling public schools doesn't cost money, the reigning National Teacher of the Year said Wednesday.

Math teacher Jason Kamras of John Philip Sousa Middle School in Washington said every school can develop the two most valuable components of academic achievement, regardless of resources:

High expectations and personal responsibility.

Those were the keys to his school cutting in half in one year the number of students testing below grade level, Kamras told about 60 professional and prospective educators in the Elizabeth Bradley Turner Center's auditorium at Columbus State University.

That success was accomplished at a school with more than 90 percent of its students considered to be living in poverty.

Four years ago, Kamras convinced his principal to double the time students spent in math class from one hour to two hours by transferring minutes from other periods. The school decreased the percentage of students scoring "below basic" on the Stanford 9 math test from 80 percent to 40 percent. Since then, his students have met the Adequate Yearly Progress standard every year, but about 30 percent of the school's students still have substandard scores.

"I've always said it's easier to go from 80 to 40 than 40 to zero," said Kamras, 32. "I also admit I haven't gotten that number down to zero just yet. But I do believe we can do that."

And he believes every school can, too. But every school has to believe it first, he said.
"That inequity, that disparity, is the greatest injustice that faces our country today," he said. "Unless we deal with it, our democracy and the future of our country really is in jeopardy."

High expectations

A school's schedule indicates whether its faculty expects high achievement from its students, Kamras said.

"Has that school constructed a path for the children who are in remedial math in sixth grade to end up in Algebra I in eighth grade," he said, "so that they have the chance to be in calculus in 12th grade?

"Most schools don't have that path. They have the remedial classes, but students end up just staying there. That will cripple them when they try to get into college and many other opportunities in life."

Responsibility

Kamras has traveled to 35 states since he took a sabbatical after being named the nation's top teacher in June. Sometimes, when he speaks to educators, he hears, "I can't teach this student" because of this or that.

"I understand there are some real challenges," he said, "but I believe it's our responsibility to find a way to say 'I can' -- to turn these difficult challenges into paths toward creative solutions."
For example:
• His classroom has a pipe that too often leaks when someone uses the sink in the bathroom down the hall. Instead of using that as a reason to bolt for a job in a wealthier district, he uses that as a reason to advocate for better facilities and take his class to the library.
• Many of his students are in families who aren't reachable by e-mail or telephone. Instead of thinking that must mean they don't care about their children and he shouldn't contact them, he visits them in their homes.
"Unless we ensure that every child has access to an excellent education," Kamras concluded, "we're going to continue to confine millions of children to a disenfranchised life, a life without political, social and economic rights."

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/local/13937268.htm