NYC Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels on his ideas for the nation's largest school system
Kamar Samuels, once an elementary school teacher in the Bronx, is now at the helm of the nation's largest school system as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's schools chancellor.
Samuels brings 20 years of experience as a New York City teacher, principal and superintendent into the role, as Mamdani tasked him with finding solutions for a system facing major challenges.
Approach to parents
In an interview Sunday on CBS News New York's "The Point with Marcia Kramer," Samuels said he'd give NYC Public Schools a C grade overall and that he sees ways to improve.
"I believe schools should be safe, rigorous, and truly integrated. If schools are not truly integrated, then throughout our system, we won't really enjoy the greatness that New York City has," said Samuels, who added he's focused on socioeconomic and racial integration.
The new schools chancellor said one of his biggest changes will be how the City Department of Education approaches parents.
"In all of my jobs across the system, the lead thing that I did was listen to parents, and I want to take that into this role," he said. "One of the things is that parents and families want to know that they are part of the decision-making process in schools, and when I was in Brooklyn, we did that."
Asked about the possibility of closing schools in the coming years, Samuels said he believes some are under-enrolled.
"I wouldn't say I'm gonna close schools yet, but I'm gonna say that we're gonna look at structural moves, which includes mergers and all of that and see what the opportunities are, not just to create diverse schools, but also to meet our class-size mandate," he said.
Reading and math scores
Samuels said his priority is to address the city's enrollment problem, with a focus on bringing high-quality schools to every neighborhood.
He said bridging the gap between neighborhoods starts with reading scores.
"The first thing we have to do is make sure every student is on track in reading. That's why we exist, and right now we don't necessarily have that in every single neighborhood," he said.
Samuels said he likes the NYC Reads initiative that started in 2023 and would like to build on it.
"We need to double down on that and then start thinking about math," he said. "If [our students] are not literate and if they're not really performing well, they're not gonna be ready for jobs that exist, much less the jobs that don't [yet]."
Samuels said it will be critical to take in feedback from parents, like when someone says their 4th grader is struggling with multiplication tables, in order to improve.
"Knowing your times tables is very, very important in math. When you get to algebra, you won't be able to factor. You can't factor on your fingers," he said. "We oftentimes don't focus on that because we think that the best way to really teach math right now is to work on conceptual understanding. That is important, but it's also important for kids to have automaticity."
Making school more like a video game
New York City schools are also seeing a problem with absenteeism, "no matter the demographics," according to the schools chancellor.
He said students are going to school less often now than prior to the COVID pandemic.
To solve the problem, Samuels said teachers need to make sure students stay engaged in their lessons and that their work is rigorous.
"If our work is not rigorous, our work is not engaging, students will not be excited to some to school," he said. "You know who got this right? The video game people. They make sure kids are working in their zone, what we call the zone of proximal development, so they want to do the next thing, they want to continue, and schools should have the same approach."
Samuels said it's also on parents to ensure their kids are attending school, especially in lower grades.
"Parents are now working from home. So it's more likely that a parent might say, 'You know what, don't go to school today,' and I do have some thoughts around that long term, but for now, really, we have to make sure we're working directly with parents and directly with students."
Mamdani announced he picked Samuels to replace Melissa Aviles-Ramos, who held the role for the last 14 and a half months of the Adams administration, just hours before he officially became mayor on New Year's Eve.
