By Gus Saltonstall
The majority of Upper West Side and Morningside Heights parents can tell you something about their children’s schools and teachers, but how many know about their community superintendent?
The public schools within the two neighborhoods are exclusively part of District 3, which stretches from 59th to 122nd streets, and goes all the way west to the Hudson River and east to Fifth Avenue above Central Park North.
Kamar Samuels has led the district of 29 schools as superintendent since June of 2022. He previously served as the leader of school District 13 in Brooklyn.
West Side Rag recently chatted with Samuels, who also lives within the district, about his main priorities in the position, the best way to evaluate a student’s work, the role of parents, and how he got into education.
We’ll start with the last of those.
WSR: Did you always know you wanted to work in education?
Kamar Samuels: No, in fact, I have a degree from Baruch in accounting, so that was my first career. My mom immigrated here from Jamaica to work as a nurse and brought me, and she told me — ‘You’re a math person, you should do accounting. There’s always a job for an accountant.’ So, I did accounting, but I didn’t like it.
Samuels did not end up staying in accounting. There was a moment earlier in his life when the seeds of a profession in education were planted.
Kamar Samuels: In my final year of college, there was a situation where I was erroneously arrested because I had accepted a package that came to my home in the Bronx. I was brought in front of a judge. I had thought it was silly, that ‘this is going to go away,’ but then, when I was in the courtroom, it really hit me that nobody was interested in the truth, the prosecutor wanted to win their case and so did my lawyer.
I remember my lawyer said two things in my defense: that my mother was in the courtroom and that I was a senior in college. When [he] said that, the judge looked up at me for the first time [and] my experience completely changed. It stuck in my head that having an education, being in college, or gainfully employed, can really save folks….At that time, I knew I wanted to do something in education. It took some time for me to switch, but when I was 25, I started teaching.
Samuels taught in the city for six years, before becoming a principal in the South Bronx and eventually taking a position at the Department of Education’s central office. From there, he became a deputy superintendent in Brownsville, before becoming the leader of District 13 in Brooklyn. Samuels was living in District 3 while he worked in Brooklyn, meaning he had a long commute each day. The opportunity to lead District 3 also was an “opportunity to be closer to home.”
WSR: Looking at the bigger picture, what are your main priorities as superintendent of District 3?
Kamar Samuels: Number one, I think of the chancellor’s priorities, the most impactful one for us being New York City Reads, which is a thoughtful approach to reading instruction, and making sure we implement those policies.
Another priority is making sure we welcome and set up platforms to educate our newest New Yorkers [asylum seekers], and we’re working with our schools to make sure that happens.
We’ve also been dealing with an enrollment challenge. Prior to the influx of new New Yorkers, some of our schools have had significant decreases, so we are engaging parents about how they make decisions for middle school, and how we can…programmatically and structurally address some of the enrollment concerns.
The position is called Community Superintendent for a reason, the community comes before the superintendent. So, you’re not strong in the position, no matter where you are in the city, unless you are able to tap in and really have a deep understanding of your community.”
WSR: On the academic side of things — what do you see as the importance of test scores compared to other markers of learning when it comes to evaluating a student’s work? Does it all come down to what a student gets on a statewide test?
Kamar Samuels: There has to be a balance of both. We know there are standardized tests and everyone wants to see ‘how my child stacks up with the rest of the state,’ and teachers want to know that, too. But in terms of usefulness, by the time you get the test results back, you have a different student in front of you.
We’ve been really thoughtful in making sure our teachers are administering our own assessments, so when students come in, it doesn’t matter where they’re coming from across the city, they’re taking the same assessments, which teachers can use immediately for making instructional decisions. Then you can get real-time data on your child, while also comparing it to the in-class work they are doing. The purpose of the state test is to see where students are throughout the city. Then there are instructional assessments that include student work and allow educators to make more informed decisions on a daily basis. In terms of usefulness, I gear toward our assessments and day-to-day tasks.
WSR: District 3 is a diverse community, there are different smaller communities between West 59th and 122nd streets. Are you doing different work depending on where you are in the district?
Kamar Samuels: It is about understanding that there are specific challenges that are unique to different areas. For example, when we think of Lincoln Square vs. Morningisde Heights, and the number of school-aged children in each of those communities, in Lincoln Square we’ve seen a significant increase, in Morningisde Heights we’ve seen a flat line or decrease. So, really understanding what that means for schools in those areas is very important to the role. Making sure we think about and apply policies in a way that works for all of our families, is a huge priority.”
Samuels’ own favorite spots in the neighborhood? Le Monde, Community Food & Juice, Dinosaur Playground with his daughters, and Riverside Park in general.
WSR: What do you see as the role of the parent in a student’s experience at school. What level of involvement would you advocate for?
Kamar Samuels: Anytime a parent sends their most precious resource to our buildings, it is on us to ensure that we harness parental involvement, which is a critical part of the process. It is important for our educators to be able to specifically speak to what each child needs, so that parents not only understand, but are able to support their children at home. This should be a seamless cycle. It’s important for us to have very targeted, specific conversations with parents. In District 3, we have parents across the socioeconomic spectrum and I believe all parents need to be brought into the process and really partnered with it, so they can be a resource [not only for their children, but] for teachers and the school.
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Interesting interview. Thanks. The city has generally been taking the approach of bringing the top schools down to create consistent mediocrity rather than bring the lower schools up, though this has slowed somewhat. There are some excellent schools in the district so efforts should be made to improve the other schools, but not at the expense of the already strong schools.
Also, don’t tell people what they should want but ask them what they want. Change is often forced upon schools when the parents at the school might already be happy with how it is. For example, extensive resources were spent on changing the middle school process a few years ago because of the obsession with equity (which is nice to have, but not worth major sacrifices). Despite all of these changes, the composition of most of the schools has largely remained unchanged. A lot of do-gooders thought they were helping people who didn’t want to be helped.