WASHINGTON—Instructional coach at Stanton Elementary School in Ward 8, Jazzmyne Townsend is a finalist for the 2025 National Teacher of the Year Award.
A teacher from Washington D.C. has not won the award since 2005. The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) hosts the national competition and has done so since 1952. Townsend was honored D.C. Teacher of the Year in 2024 and was named one of four finalists for the 2025 honor.
Townsend said she was initially overwhelmed with emotion and is honored to share this win with her school.
“It was a huge surprise. I definitely was shocked. There were some tears that came out. But aside from it being a surprise, it was a huge honor just to be recognized by my school community, by my students, by the administrators who I have worked with over the years who have supported me,” she said.
Her path to becoming an educator was unique. She graduated from Howard University in 2009 with a degree in marketing from the School of Business.
During her time at Howard, she worked for Denise Saunders Thompson, assistant dean of administration at the Chadwick A. Boseman School of Fine Arts at Howard. Thompson said Townsend was a wonderful worker with skills that transferred over into her teaching career.
“She was my right hand. Trustworthy, knew her stuff and very reliable and personable. Jazzmyne was an incredible student, curious, open to learning and just honestly a reliable person who I could call on to just do anything administratively in the department,” Thompson said.
The Howard alumna said she originally desired to work in the corporate space post-graduation. However, she was forced to change career plans.
“When I graduated in 2009, the recession was happening and jobs weren’t really hiring. I thought I was going to work in corporate America but decided to pivot and that’s how I got into the world of education, and it was the best decision that I’ve ever made,” she said.
Yuvay Meyers Ferguson taught Townsend during her time at Howard. She believes that her characteristics from her performance in class helped make her perfect to become an educator.
“The one thing that sticks out to me is that Jazzmyne was always a quiet leader, but she never let stuff just go by the wayside. So, I’m not surprised at all that she went into education,” Ferguson said.
2025 marks her sixteenth year as a teacher. Her career began at Friendship Public Charter School where she taught pre-kindergarten. At Stanton Elementary, Townsend has taught students from preschool to third-grade level and worked in special education inclusion. Today, as an instructional coach, she supports teachers from kindergarten to fifth-grade level in English Language Arts (ELA) instruction at Stanton.
Her background in ELA ultimately inspired her, she said, to become an author. She published Hattie Leads the Way, a retelling of Harriet Tubman’s story for children.
“I wanted to teach my students who were in kindergarten at the time Black history, but obviously in a developmentally appropriate way. Trying to teach them a topic like that is very abstract for a five-year-old to understand. So, I wanted to bring it down to their level, making something that they could connect to cognitively,” Townsend said.
After creating the book, she went through the process of self-publishing the story with her students. She believes it helped her students become more interested in reading.
“As a way to sort of hook them and get them really excited, I shared with them that I’m [going to] be an author as well. They kind of didn’t believe me at first…So it was exciting to be able to, as I was doing that own work on my own project, to use that as a way to hook them and to get them excited about becoming authors and illustrators for themselves,” Townsend said.
From Townsend’s experience, her students published two books as well. The stories included topics the students were interested in, including magic. This allowed them to write and illustrate their books and helped them gain interest in drawing, reading and writing.
“Taking that student interest and connecting it to academic content in a meaningful and an engaging way and in a developmentally appropriate way. My five and six-year-old students could see themselves as writers, so they did know that the ideas that they thought about in their head, they could talk about out loud, and they could represent their ideas through drawing and writing,” Townsend said.
Many in her Howard community say they are proud of her accomplishments.
“I’m proud of the work that she’s doing to make the lives of children better. Pride is the only thing I can think of and also being a Bison. I’m just proud to know that we are out there making a difference. So not just as my student, but as a fellow Bison, super proud,” Ferguson said.
Townsend said she wants to ensure the work in D.C. schools is recognized nationally.
“It would be a tremendous honor to be able to represent not only… my school, not only state and elementary, but DC Public Schools, DC Public Charter Schools, all of those great schools that are here in DC that are working to create a world-class learning environment for students across the District,” she said.
