Incoming education commissioner outlines priorities
BOSTON (SHNS) – Literacy, teacher recruitment and retention, and promoting bilingual education are at the top of the priority list for the state's new K-12 commissioner of education.
Pedro Martinez will begin running Massachusetts's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education on July 1, after former Commissioner Jeff Riley stepped down in March 2024 and over a year of interim leadership.
Speaking at his first public event in Massachusetts since he was chosen for the role, Martinez outlined some of his priority goals on Tuesday at a Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education event in Boston.
Among them is getting students back on track when it comes to reading.
'This issue has been front and center for students, as students return from the pandemic. And by the way this is national. Anybody who was a parent of a young child remembers, and remember our third and fourth graders today, those were children that were going to start their education during the pandemic period. So it's not a coincidence,' Martinez said.
Teachers, education advocates and state officials in Massachusetts have been talking about improving student literacy for years, as young people have struggled with reading and writing after the pandemic. On last year's state testing, 41% of third through eighth graders scored in the 'meeting or exceeding expectations' range for English Language Arts.
Currently the superintendent of Chicago Public Schools, Martinez said that in the city 'we realized that the only way to really solve this is we had to go back to the basics.'
'So we had to bring them in as soon as possible,' he said. 'So we expanded universal preschool across every one of the 77 communities. Free, full-day preschool. There we started laying the foundations.'
In Chicago, they began 'implementing the foundational skills from pre-K through fifth grade — some people call it the 'science of reading,' ' he said. 'The instruction incorporates best practices such as abundant reading of diverse texts, frequent opportunities for students to write about what they read, and teaching students how to communicate with digital environments.'
Science of reading is not one specific curriculum program that districts can buy, but a collection of research based on phonics, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. The approach to teaching reading differs from past approaches partially by emphasizing phonics instruction — teaching students to understand how letters and groups of letters link to sounds and spelling patterns — though it is not wholly based on phonics.
The term science of reading has been around for over a century, but has recently become shorthand to discuss using cognitive research on how children's brains work while reading, and using more classroom time on learning to sound out words and work on comprehension.
'I'll tell you, going into classrooms and seeing kindergartners write about something they've read, it's priceless, especially in high-poverty communities,' Martinez said.
Gov. Maura Healey launched a program dubbed 'Literacy Launch' last year that secured $20 million in the state budget, in addition to $38 million in federal literacy grants, focused on getting higher-quality literacy materials into dozens of districts, which they're hoping will translate into improved reading scores and an improvement in the foundational skill on which all other learning depends.
'I know that Massachusetts recently adopted a long-term plan to improve literacy as well. I commit to you I will do everything in my power to ensure that that plan is successful,' Martinez said.
In addition to literacy, Martinez said he'd be focused on recruiting and retaining high qualified educators.
He shared a story about a teacher who he said changed the trajectory of his life. His sixth grade teacher in the Chicago Public Schools, Mr. Asher, 'was the first teacher that told me I was actually below grade level. He was actually the first teacher that said, 'I'm going to hold you accountable and you're going to make sure that you're going to rise up to that challenge.''
Martinez credited Mr. Asher with his coming out of 6th grade above grade level, and eventually becoming the first in his family to graduate high school and finish college.
'Mr. Asher changed my life,' he said. 'A highly qualified educator is the number one way to really close achievement gaps, and therefore, how we recruit, how we retain teachers — there are proven strategies across the country — and that's what I really want to look at.'
He recommended a few ideas, including teacher residency and internal recruitment programs.
In Chicago, he said, the district created a program called Teach Chicago Tomorrow.
'We're always complaining that we can't find highly qualified teachers, but guess where the students start? They start in K-12, right? In the districts. And so in Chicago we started working with the higher ed community, identifying students that had a passion for education, giving them really a clear path for them to be able to not only get support financially, get mentorship all the way through finishing to become teachers in our schools,' Martinez said.
He added that thousands of paraprofessionals also moved into teacher roles through a similar program.
Another priority Martinez highlighted Tuesday was bilingual education.
'I think we need to go even deeper in Massachusetts,' he said. 'One of the blessings that I feel is to be bicultural, to be bilingual is such a gift. It is such a gift. And so why wouldn't we want that for all of our children in Massachusetts? Why wouldn't we want all of our children to have access to multiple languages?
Martinez immigrated to Illinois from Mexico when he was five years old.
The last priority he highlighted was helping connect Massachusetts students to higher education.
He talked about working in the San Antonio school district in Texas, where he saw people move from out of state to take advantage of Texas's strong economy while local students struggled to get jobs.
'Texas imports a lot of their labor, and then we have individuals that grew up in Texas, and there was a mixed bag. And so my question in Massachusetts, how do we make sure that it's our students that live in Massachusetts? How do we make sure that it's our students that are taking advantage of the amazing, amazing higher ed infrastructure that exists in the state?' he said.
He added that 'one thing that I'm really anxious to talk to everyone about is, how do we get rid of this conversation of careers or college? That's not a thing everybody.'
Martinez proposed working with community colleges and creating pathways in manufacturing, technology and health care to connect higher education and career opportunities for students after high school.
'I can't help but just recognize where I'm at in Massachusetts. This is a rich history, as everybody talked about, of education here,' he said. 'I can just imagine in 1993 when many fine individuals in this room came together to pass the Massachusetts Education Reform Act that has now put Massachusetts, in my opinion, number one in the nation. So think of this moment now. This is a time when we can come together, we can build a similar bold vision about what we expect our students to be able to do after high school.'
WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBS News
5 days ago
- CBS News
Outgoing CPS CEO Pedro Martinez speaks out as he prepares to leave office
Outgoing Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez held nothing back Monday, speaking at a City Club of Chicago event, where he opened up about his opposition to taking out a loan to help cover a budget shortfall, which he said cost him his job. "You show your work. Does the evidence show that we're going in the right direction? Absolutely," Martinez said. "And by the way, in spite of, not because of, in spite of not having people not having our backs. Can you imagine if we would have people watching our backs, the work we could've done?" Martinez also criticized Mayor Brandon Johnson and the Chicago Teachers Union, claiming they wanted to throw the school district into financial distress, then demand a bailout. Martinez has said he declined a request from the mayor to resign in September, after he refused Johnson's request to have CPS take out a $300 million high-interest loan to pay for the costs of a new proposed teachers' contract and pension costs previously covered by the city. The school board voted to fire Martinez in December, but because he was fired without cause, he was allowed to stay until the end of the school year. His last day on the job is Wednesday. He's set to become commissioner of elementary and secondary education in Massachusetts on July 1.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Yahoo
Ousted schools CEO shares how mayor asked him to resign
CHICAGO (WGN) — In an exit interview before his last day on Wednesday, Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez shared the moment Mayor Brandon Johnson asked for his resignation, and his fears about the future of the district. '[The mayor] asked to borrow, the most irresponsible thing you can ask. … And he said, Pedro, you have credibility in finances. You were the CFO. You can sell this.' I said, 'Mayor, it's not the right thing to do. You're getting bad advice.' He finally said, 'Pedro, … you've told me five times that I'm getting bad advice. All that tells me is you're not on board in my vision, and I need you to leave.' And that's when he asked me to resign.' Weeks after Martinez declined to step aside, the entire Chicago Board of Education resigned, giving Johnson an opportunity to appoint a new board before Chicagoans began choosing elected members at the ballot box. But before elected members took their seats, the Johnson-appointed board voted to fire Martinez. Martinez sued. 'I really thought that people would do the right thing. I really did,' Martinez said Monday. The drama played out during the middle of Chicago Teachers Union contract talks. In response to his suit, a judge ruled that Board of Education members could not block Martinez from doing his job. On his way out the door, Martinez filed defamation claims against the CTU, its president, Stacy Davis Gates, and the board president. 'I mean, we know it between the mayor, the mayor's office, the CTU leadership, they all been together in cahoots,' Martinez said. 'I've been bullied for a whole year and that's been publicly on the record. I've been personally attacked not only myself. My team has been personally attacked.' Before he departs to take a new job as Massachusetts state education commissioner, Martinez took aim at the CTU and Johnson: 'If you look at what's happening with [the Chicago Transit Authority] ight now, you know, they're asking for a bailout. That's always been the plan for CPS is to put the district in financial distress and to ask for a bailout,' Martinez alleged. 'It's always been the union and it's been the mayor's office because they think somehow that because the governor has political aspirations to be in DC then somehow he's going to do that.' Martinez predicts more turmoil for the district. Last week, the school board named Macquline King interim CEO while the search continues to a permanent replacement. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Yahoo
‘I am a product of this system': Pedro Martinez reflects on his tenure as CPS chief
At an eighth grade graduation last week at his alma mater, John A. Walsh Elementary School in Pilsen, outgoing schools chief Pedro Martinez recounted to parents and students how one teacher — Mr. Asher — turned the trajectory of his life around. 'I was below grade level. I was struggling, frankly. You know, I grew up in poverty,' Martinez said. 'And (he) just saw something in me.' Martinez is leaving the district on Wednesday. In an interview with the Tribune on Thursday, he emotionally recounted his passion for Chicago Public Schools and for the city where he found a home as the child of Mexican immigrants. He urged the next leader of the district to practice empathy in order to set an example for the more than 320,000 kids they will oversee. The top district official drew national attention this school year amid a showdown between CPS and Mayor Brandon Johnson, who was backed by the mayor's close ally, the Chicago Teachers Union. That conflict culminated Wednesday in a claim of defamation Martinez filed against CTU, its president, Stacy Davis Gates, and Chicago Board of Education President Sean Harden. Martinez hopes to add the claim as an amendment to an ongoing lawsuit he filed against the board after he was fired in late December. He starts a new job as the commissioner of elementary and secondary education in Massachusetts on July 1. In the interview with the Tribune, Martinez did not hold back from describing the toll the drama-laden back-and-forth had taken on him and his family. He compared the political positions of the board members and officials who led the charge to fire him to the polarization under President Donald Trump. 'What you see on both sides is that they both feel they're right. They don't care what the evidence shows. They don't care what the truth really is. They just feel they're right,' he said. Martinez was the first Latino appointee to head CPS on a permanent basis. The eldest of 12 children, he credits Pilsen's churches for welcoming his family to the city from Mexico. He didn't get his visa until his junior year at Benito Juarez High School in Pilsen. He said he feels 'blessed' to have attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and to have received his MBA from DePaul University, noting that many undocumented students aren't being afforded the same opportunities because of the federal immigration crackdown. 'I feel for our community, because I understand the fear. I understand the uncertainty,' he said. Martinez worked as the chief financial officer for CPS from 2003 to 2009 under then-CEO Arne Duncan. He was a network chief before leaving to serve as superintendent of school districts in Nevada and San Antonio. He returned as CPS CEO in 2021 under then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot, just as the world was emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic. Though Martinez was born in Mexico, he said he always considered himself a Chicagoan first. 'When I came back, they started calling me the son of Chicago,' he said. 'I've gotta tell you, it's probably the best compliment I've ever received in my entire career.' A 96-page amended lawsuit, filed late Wednesday by Martinez's lawyer, William Quinlan, lays bare the CPS CEO's fight to retain his title. The conflict began in September when the mayor, a former teacher and CTU organizer, pushed for Martinez's removal after Martinez opposed a $300 million loan meant to fund a new teachers contract and a $175 million pension payment to nonteacher CPS employees. 'I really thought (the mayor and I) were aligned,' Martinez reflected Thursday. 'He knew my financial background. He even told me, 'Pedro, you have credibility.'' Martinez said he was caught off guard when Johnson asked him to step down at the September meeting due to his opposition to the loan, which he believed relied on short-term fixes for long-term financial needs. He said he had warned the mayor at least five times before their meeting that the city's financial advisers offered flawed guidance. He believes his differing stance from the mayor on borrowing stems from his tenure as CPS' chief financial officer in the 2000s. Between 2003 and 2007, when he was CFO, the Tribune found CPS issued $1 billion in a type of long-term debt called auction-rate securities. Martinez later defended the borrowing. But he contends that after his time away from the district in Nevada and San Antonio, he returned to find that CPS had relied on high-interest borrowing from 2015 to 2018, more straightforwardly expensive than the auction-rate borrowing under his leadership. When Martinez left CPS, the district 'had over a billion dollars in the bank,' he said. Upon returning as CEO in 2021, he said he was stunned to find the district was 'the second-largest junk bond producer in the country, second only to Puerto Rico.' 'I really didn't feel it would be a responsible path forward to just push issues to the future for somebody else,' he explained, when asked about the controversial $300 million loan that made headlines for months. The mayor's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. After the mayor-appointed school board refused to fire Martinez at Johnson's bidding, all seven members resigned in early October. Johnson quickly replaced them, and the new handpicked board — allegedly 'inadequately vetted,' according to Martinez's suit — moved to terminate the CEO 'without cause.' Martinez's lawsuit claims the board tried to 'manufacture' a cause to justify his removal. He was allowed to stay on for 180 days. In the months that followed his December firing, Martinez's relationships with the mayor-appointed board members and CTU grew increasingly complicated. The week after the ouster and amid contract negotiations, Cook County Judge Joel Chupack granted Martinez a temporary restraining order barring the school board from interfering with his duties or assuming control over the CPS staff. The recent defamation claims against Davis Gates were added to Martinez's ongoing lawsuit. Judge Chupack is expected to rule on whether to accept the amended complaint. Chalkbeat Chicago first reported the complaint. On Thursday, Martinez spoke with the Tribune about the 'obvious' relationship between mayor-appointed board members and the CTU. He said Davis Gates was pushing 700 proposals in the new teachers contract that would have cost billions in debt. 'It was (the mindset of), 'This is what we deserve,'' he said. 'And the mayor was right there with her.' In the complaint, Martinez cites multiple public statements and social media posts Davis Gates made during contract negotiations that he says falsely portrayed him as unfit to lead. Among the examples: a graphic depicting him as 'the Grinch,' a CTU statement accusing him of putting 'personal politics' and 'media stardom' ahead of students, and a comment from Davis Gates comparing him to a disruptive student who should have an individualized education program — a remark that she later apologized for. In a statement, Steve Mandell, representing CTU in the lawsuit, called the complaint a 'brazen attempt to silence legitimate public advocacy' and stated that Davis Gates and CTU were advocating for change to improve the lives of students and teachers. 'If this sort of advocacy were actionable, the courts would literally be flooded with baseless defamation claims arising out of everyday labor disputes,' said the statement from Mandell, who also is on retainer to represent the Chicago Tribune in some legal matters. On Thursday, Martinez denounced Davis Gates' leadership style. He said it's important for parents to have CPS leadership they can trust, because 'we are the ones that are educating their children.' 'We're seeing this across the country … individuals who are now in power just want what they want,' he said. 'You will never see me bashing people, lying and insulting people.' Martinez claims in the suit that the union falsely blamed him for proposing mass school closures, including the shutdown of seven of 15 Acero charter schools in October — a decision he says he had no role in. He also alleges that board President Harden publicly criticized his budget plans for the coming year and stated that his departure from CPS should be accelerated. Martinez is seeking damages and a court order to enforce the terms of his contract. At a board meeting on Wednesday, the board voted to raise the payment cap for its law firm, Cozen O'Connor, from $75,000 to $135,000. The firm, along with Davis Gates and Harden, did not respond to requests for comment. This summer, the district again faces challenging budget circumstances, but under considerably different leadership dynamics. At Wednesday's board meeting, members appointed Macquline King as the new interim CPS chief. King comes from a post as the city's senior director of educational policy, so in theory, she is aligned with the mayor's priorities. She may clash with him less than Martinez did. The search for a permanent replacement is ongoing, and the district aims to pick a candidate later this fall. Before King's appointment, the Chicago Westside Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People sent a letter to Harden, requesting that board members 'hire a Black person who is a qualified Educator' for both the interim and permanent roles. The Tribune obtained a copy of the letter. Last week, the City Council's Latino Caucus sent a letter to Johnson requesting the appointment of a 'qualified Latino leader to serve as interim CEO.' The caucus's letter cites data that schools are 47% Latino, but states that 'our communities remain underrepresented in key leadership roles across City government and its sister agencies.' Asked about the optics of the two groups fighting each other through open letters to city leadership, Martinez pointed out that both Black and Latino students have seen significant improvements in literacy rates under his tenure. 'We're seeing so many of our students doing so much better,' he said. Thursday morning, he teared up as he talked about what this job has meant to him. 'I am a product of this system and all of the complexities,' he said.
