Eaton Elementary School

While advocating for at-risk students with IEPs as a second-year law student in the special education clinic at U.D.C., Steven accepts a part-time position teaching U.S. History to juveniles incarcerated as adults at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility. Here, teaching the U.S. Constitution to 14–16-year-old brown and black boys, some facing life behind bars, Steven witnesses the pernicious and systematic interconnections between poverty, race, disability, and lack of educational opportunity that he will work the remainder of life to change. Following the completion of his Juris Doctor of Law, Steven completes a Master of Arts in Special Education from American University Magna Cum Laude and becomes a special education teacher at Garrison ES, a Title 1 DCPS school going through the growing pains of gentrification and struggling with equity issues of its own. By his third year, Steven coaches teachers in reading and math instruction as a Teacher Leader, writes Cornerstones Project Based Learning Tasks for the district, leads district-wide seminars on data-driven instruction and, most importantly, moves student data. During the 2017-18 school year 40% of his students with IEPs are proficient on the PARCC Math Test - adistrict high mark at the time - and 100% of meet their growth goals in reading with an average yearly increase of two grade bands on the Test of Reading Comprehension. Most recently, as a Manager of Specialized Instruction and Assistant Principal at Payne ES, Steven leads the operational and instructional priorities of the school that include the equitable alignment of self-contained programs with school-wide expectations, the establishment of a responsive, equity focused MTSS system, and the movement, school-wide, of instructional practice towards more engaging, data-driven, individualized instruction.

See more new principals for SY 22-23!