After ten years, the Baltimore City Public Schools is getting a new leader. On April 20, the school system announced that it had selected Jermaine Dawson, a career school administrator with experience in Philadelphia, Birmingham, Houston, Duval County Public Schools, Fulton County Schools, and Charter Schools USA.
Dawson – who is expected to officially start his job in Baltimore this summer – is taking the helm of the Baltimore school system at a time when the school district is struggling with chronic absenteeism, lagging test scores, and lackluster graduation rates.
With Dawson taking the helm in Baltimore, a city where nearly 90% of students struggle with math, the stakes for the regional higher education pipeline have never been higher. As a "mathematician by training," Dawson’s focus on foundational numeracy could be the key to reducing remediation rates and ensuring more urban students are actually prepared for the rigors of a college degree.
Here are five essential facts about Dawson and his philosophy on education:
1. He was a math teacher
Dawson earned a master’s degree in mathematics education from Nova Southeastern University, a private nonprofit institution located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and went on to become an elementary and middle school math teacher. While he views himself as a “mathematician by training,” his interest in math goes back to his childhood.
“When I think about my upbringing in mathematics, I’ve always had this love and passion for numbers,” Dawson said in an interview with WBAL-TV 11 News.
During his time as deputy superintendent of academic services in Philadelphia, a new math curriculum yielded the “highest test scores in nearly a decade,” according to Chalkbeat, a nonprofit news organization that focuses on school improvement.
Given the critical role that math education plays in predicting college success, Dawson’s background in mathematics will be crucial in his new position as schools chief in Baltimore, where nearly 87% of students are not proficient in math.
“Fourth-grade math scores are rising but need more attention,” Liz Bowie, an education reporter at The Baltimore Banner, wrote in an article that details the “unfinished business” that awaits Dawson in Baltimore.
That message is not lost on Dawson.
“I come to this city as an educator by trade, a mathematician by training, but I also come here as someone who knows the transformative power of what a public school education can do in the life of a child,” Dawson told reporters at a news conference after his appointment.
2. He experienced homelessness as a child
Dawson told WBAL-TV 11 News that he “grew up homeless in inner-city Atlanta.”
“I know what it is to sleep on porches. I know what it is to have to eat out of trash cans,” Dawson said. “I know what it is to not know where your next meal is going to come from.”
Dawson said growing up, he used to question why he had it so hard. Now, as incoming superintendent, he says he understands that his rocky childhood was meant to help prepare him to serve children who are going through similar experiences.
3. He is an alumnus of Morehouse College
Dawson’s childhood experiences with homelessness are all the more inspiring given the fact that he went from sleeping on porches in Atlanta to enrolling in the city’s famed Morehouse College, a selective HBCU where he earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology. The degree marked just the beginning of Dawson’s postsecondary career. In addition to his master’s degree in math education from Nova Southern, Dr. Dawson holds a master’s degree in educational leadership from Kennesaw State University and a doctorate degree in educational leadership from Northcentral University.
Dawson credits his teachers with helping him make it through hard times and into college. One of those educators, Sharon Gay, who was Dawson’s high school teacher and also the first principal for whom he worked, accompanied Dawson at a news conference following his appointment.
“I'm standing here today because of the power of those educators,” Dawson said of his former teachers. “But I also know what happens when a community refuses to let a student's circumstances define their potential. I am here today because of those teachers and administrators who refused to let me become a statistic.”
4. He boosted graduation rates in Philadelphia
As an administrator, Dawson has a track record of “improving student outcomes, increasing graduation rates, and reducing dropout rates,” Baltimore City Public Schools stated in an announcement about his appointment.
DA Leadership – a publication that serves district administrators – named Dawson as one its Top 100 influencers in education and described Dawson as a “passionate school system leader with a proven track record of raising student achievement and improving outcomes for school districts.”
That experience will be essential in Baltimore, where The Baltimore Banner notes that Philadelphia’s high school graduation rate is more than 10 percentage points higher than the rate in Baltimore.
Dawson attributes improvements in the high school graduation rate in Philadelphia to efforts to talk to students about their future as early as elementary school, then tracking their grades, attendance and plans for life after high school.
5. He believes in the four E’s
Dawson told multiple news outlets that he plans to help ensure students go into what he refers to as the “four E’s” after high school: enrollment in college or a trade school, enlistment in the military, employment or entrepreneurship.
Plans for how Dawson will achieve those goals are expected to be revealed by Sept. 1. That’s the due date for Dawson to submit to the school board the annual performance goals he develops for the Baltimore public school system.
