Jim Murphy believes strong public schools are fundamental to strong communities
Jim is a career educator and eighteen-year Newton resident. Married to a lifelong Newtonian, Jim is committed to public education as the core of democratic self-rule and the primary means by which our children understand themselves as part of something larger. He believes that successful schools are places where students acquire the knowledge, skills, and desire to become the best version of themselves, individually and as members of a community. Here in Newton, that means working in cooperation with educators to provide our children with a sense of challenge and belonging.
Jim understands excellence in education
Jim has broad experience in both teaching and administration of public schools. He was the 6-12 Social Studies Director in Weston and Weymouth and the K-12 Social Studies Director in Everett. In both positions, Jim dealt with teacher evaluation, budgeting, scheduling, professional development, and curriculum evaluation and development. Throughout his career, he has volunteered for positions that advance student success and educator well-being. He consulted with the AP Program as an exam reader and on curriculum guides and served as part of the Safe Schools Task Force.
George Elbaum, author of Neither Yesterdays Nor Tomorrows: Vignettes of a Holocaust Childhood, spoke to Everett High School World History classes about his experiences.
Jim is an accomplished public servant
Jim grew up in Weymouth and has roots in the Boston area that go back well over a century. The son of a teacher in the Weymouth Public Schools and a police officer in Canton, his (large) extended family boasts generations of public service. While primarily a high school and middle school Social Studies teacher and administrator over the course of thirty-eight years, Jim has taught students from kindergarten to college in urban, suburban, and rural settings in Massachusetts. He has been a Massachusetts Teacher of the Year nominee, a division winning softball coach, a Massachusetts Speech and Debate League Hall of Fame inductee, and has been honored with a Presidential Scholars Teacher Recognition Award. Still in contact with many of his former students, Jim has even officiated the wedding of two of them.
2011 Presidential Scholars Awards ceremony
Jim remains an active educator and advocate for public education
Since retiring from teaching full-time, Jim has taught History at Fisher College, and courses in Civic Engagement and Student Activism in the Honors College at UMass. Boston. Additionally, he supervises teacher candidates at the Lynch School of Education and Human Development, and has published in the areas of human rights and education. Jim is an active advocate for Massachusetts’ public schools and has been a part of successful efforts to fight the expansion of charter schools, more fully fund public education, and eliminate MCAS testing as a graduation requirement. In Newton, he served as a member of the Mayor’s City Seal working group for the past five years.
Jim holds a B. A. in Social Thought and Political Economy from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, an Ed. M. in Teaching and Curriculum from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is currently a Ph. D. candidate in the School for Global Inclusion and Social Development at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, writing a dissertation in the area of civic education in Massachusetts.