Secretary's Column
By Dr. Rick Melmer
Department of Education

Words of hope

I had the opportunity to hear Jason Kamras, the 2005 National Teacher of the Year, speak at a conference that I attended in November. Jason is a middle school math teacher in the District of Columbia. As you can imagine, Jason works with a large number of students who are considered low income. Yet he refuses to make excuses for his students or himself when it comes to student achievement.

Jason illustrated some key points about poverty when he asked one half of the audience to stand – demonstrating that one of every two students from families of $90,000 income or more have a chance to attend postsecondary education. He then illustrated through audience participation that only one in 15 young people from families that make $35,000 or less have a chance to attend postsecondary education.

After that background, Jason went on to talk about the importance of ignoring the factors associated with poverty and providing hope to young people that come from low-income homes. He gave the audience two challenges. They were so simple, yet so profound, that I wanted to share them with you.

Maintain High Expectations
Jason challenged us to “passionately reject causes for low achievement” and continue to expect all of our students to achieve. There have been many critics of No Child Left Behind – people who feel that its expectations are unrealistic. Yet we need to continue to believe that all students have the ability to succeed. If we don’t believe that, then we know they won’t succeed.

Accept Personal Responsibility
Jason stated the need for classroom teachers and school administrators to “invest in student learning.” One of the questions that we used to ask our teacher candidates was “How do you feel when one of your students fails?” What we wanted to hear is that the teacher felt that he or she had failed as well. That is an indication of investment in student learning. If the students haven’t learned it, then it hasn’t actually been taught. We all should feel a sense of responsibility for student learning in our classrooms and school buildings.

Jason Kamras has received an honor that could be bestowed on thousands of teachers in this country. However, I don’t know if there would be a better spokesperson for the teaching profession than Jason Kamras. Let’s all internalize his two key points above and help all of our students to achieve in our schools.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Jason Kamras’ speech will be available on the Council of Chief State School Officers’ Web site (www.ccsso.org) after the first of the year.