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Gray says education policy experts don't get how tough it is to be a teacher in an urban school.

2012 Massachusetts Teacher of  Year Award video

University of Georgia education alumnus Adam Gray has been named the 2012 Massachusetts Teach of the Year for his innovative work at an inner city high school in South Boston.

Gray (BSEd ’05), who has taught 10th grade mathematics at Monument High School for the past five years, was frustrated over the number of his students at Monument who weren’t passing classes. Data revealed that most students had the ability to do well but were low achieving.

Gray began an after school program in 2009 with the simple goal of making success at Monument cool. Through his Mu Alpha Theta honor society, the city’s first, Gray sought to change students’ attitude toward academic achievement by giving them something for which to work.

“I made them a deal. If you have good attendance, grades and behavior, you will get an all-expenses paid trip.” he told The Advocate, the official publication of the American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts.

Two years later, Mu Alpha Theta is a brilliant success. Nearly 10 percent of Monument students are members. And the trips? There have been three so far, to Washington D.C. and Chicago. Gray has raised more than $45,000 from area businesses to fund the trips.

“I wanted to demonstrate that these kids can achieve,” he said.

Gray, who grew up in South Carolina, earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics education from the University of Georgia. He began teaching in Boston when he was just 23 years old, and says the demands of being an urban educator nearly overwhelmed him during his first few months.

“You have to be confident and resilient. You have to have a thick skin, be reflective and be willing to grow. You have to be able to get through the day and be really good.”

(An article in The Advocate contributed to this story.)

See the rest of the story in The Advocate

Boston Public Schools article