Andre Samuels’ passion for turning teachers into educators is what drives his work.  “We work as educators to arm students not with rote knowledge, but with skills and tools to analyze ideas in order to develop and cultivate their own.”  Mr. Samuels began his career in school leadership by obtaining a Master’s Degree in Educational Administration and Policy and a Master’s Degree in Special Education from Howard University. He remains active in the school of education at Howard University as an adjunct professor and new teacher mentor with the Ready to Teach program. Mr. Samuels is currently pursuing his Ed.D. in Teaching and Learning with a concentration in Teacher Professional Development at Argosy University.

Mr. Samuels began his work with DCPS in 2008 as an assistant principal at Stanton Elementary School and Smothers Elementary School. Upon arriving at MacFarland Middle School in 2010, Mr. Samuels led his team of educators in rebranding the school, fostering community support, and arming themselves with job embedded professional development to address issues often associated with poor instructional practices.  One of the most important components was deciding, differentiating, and mastering a curriculum that best met the academic needs of the diverse student population. Mr. Samuels’ hard work paid off, with 80% of the staff receiving an IMPACT rating of “Effective” or “Highly Effective”. MacFarland ended the 2013 school year with the 3rd highest proficiency gains on the DC CAS in Math and 5th highest in English Language Arts in all of DCPS, the highest combined performance gain of all middle schools in the district.