Jack Zamary

Learning. That one word defines Jack Zamary’s work and ignites the passion that drives him both personally and professionally. He has been very fortunate to have a rich and varied set of learning experiences throughout his life and career. The universality of how we learn has been a fascination of Jack’s for many years. He believes that best practice is embraced and sustained when it is modeled and owned by all practitioners in the district. To this end, his doctoral dissertation studied the authentic practice of teachers through Kim Marshall's mini-observation model. The dissertation was selected for presentation at the Northeastern Educational Research Association and was also featured in an article published in “Communicator”, for the National Association of Elementary Principals. As an application and extension of this work, Jack Zamary led the development of a unique walkthrough model in the Monroe Schools, where teachers are engaged in brief, authentic observations of each other’s lessons, a model called “Lesson Study” (loosely based on the Japanese model by the same name). Traditional walkthroughs are often a strategy that is “done to"- rather than “done with" teachers, and learning theory has clearly shown that the most effective assessment design engages the learner in developing assessment criteria. In a recent NEASC Collaborative Conference, the Monroe Schools received a commendation for their use of lesson study. As Superintendent of the Monroe Public Schools, Jack Zamary’s vision and leadership with practices such as lesson study contributed to Monroe attaining their highest district aggregate scores in both Math and English Language Arts. While high performance in tested subjects is one component in meeting the needs of students, Jack believes that schools have a moral obligation to meet the needs of the whole child. Amid growing concerns about the mental health of our nation’s children, Jack believes that we have an urgent imperative to address those needs. With his administrative team, he led the study and implementation of social and emotional learning strategies including RULER from the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence as well as Harvard’s “Making Caring Common”. It is Jack’s belief that these tools, along with a comprehensive curriculum that includes rich and meaningful experiences in all three domains of learning - the affective, cognitive and psychomotor (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001), create a solid foundation for meeting the essential needs of every student.

Learning, creating, performing and running.