Kamar Samuels takes over as New York City schools chancellor

Last week Kamar Samuels took over as New York City’s schools chancellor, the choice of Mayor Zohran Mamdani to lead the country’s largest public school system. Samuels had been a superintendent on Manhattan’s West Side, overseeing more than two dozen schools, and previously served as a superintendent in Brooklyn.

He was known for merging under-enrolled schools with an eye toward integration, a skill that stood out to Mamdani’s team during the selection. Samuels has spoken about continuing to improve literacy and math instruction and giving students access to more rigorous material. Mamdani has said the system remains in urgent need of integration and has indicated he will not change admissions at the city’s small group of elite high schools.

About 5 percent of students are enrolled in gifted-and-talented programs; Mamdani has said he did not believe students should be admitted to those programs in kindergarten and that admissions in those programs will not change for the upcoming school year. In districts where he was superintendent, Samuels has often expressed interest in moving from traditional gifted-and-talented programs to International Baccalaureate programs.

The district faces major challenges: enrollment has declined by more than 100,000 students in recent years, and officials must address both the need for accelerated learning for many elementary students and much greater support for others to reach basic proficiency.

Key Topics

Politics, Kamar Samuels, New York City, Zohran Mamdani, School Integration, International Baccalaureate