Pedro Martinez, the superintendent of Chicago Public Schools, is on track to become Massachusetts’s next education commissioner after a 9-0-2 vote of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education on Tuesday.
Praising Martinez’s work closing achievement gaps for students in poverty, multilingual learners and students of color, as well as his history of “standing up for kids” in politically challenging environments, board members who backed Martinez described him as the right person for this moment when the state is at odds with the federal government and the Bay State’s standing as an educational leader is shaky.
“There’s a proven track record of success in extraordinarily unideal contexts,” Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler said.
Two board members — Dálida Rocha and Mary Ann Stewart — abstained from the vote, having said earlier in Tuesday’s meeting that they planned to cast their votes for Lily Laux, executive director of Economic Mobility Systems and former deputy commissioner of school programs at the Texas Education Agency.
Martinez was one of 42 people who applied for the job to lead the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) since the search began in December, and he was one of three finalists. The other two were Laux and Jack Elsey, founder of the Michigan Educator Workforce Initiative.
The state has been without a permanent commissioner since its former leader, Jeff Riley, stepped down in March 2024. The K-12 department was run intermittently by longtime DESE deputy Russell Johnston, who stepped down at the end of last month to take a superintendent job in Pennsylvania. BESE hopes to have its new commissioner in place by July.
Martinez has led the Chicago Public Schools, the fourth-largest district in the country, since 2021. In December, the CPS school board voted to fire him without cause after a public dispute with the Chicago Teacher’s Union and Mayor Brandon Johnson. Martinez is set to leave the district as superintendent in June.
According to local reporting, Johnson and Martinez clashed over how to pay for a new teachers contract. Martinez refused the mayor’s request to take out a $300 million short-term high-interest loan, saying it could downgrade the district’s bond rating status and saddle it with costs that would divert future funds to be able to hire more teachers and counselors.
During his interview before the Massachusetts board last week, Martinez said he was proud of his track record of pandemic recovery in the Chicago schools, which he said were in “disarray” when he arrived.
“The children were just barely coming back into classes. There had been walkouts by the union and staff every year for three years in a row. There was no trust with our parents. There was no trust with our school leaders,” he said. “So the first year, I was able to stabilize the district and just build trust … By the end of the second year, we were leading the nation in recovery for literacy, led by our Black students and second by our Latino students. Our high schools hit record levels across graduation rates, credits earned, and that continued until my third year. And this is a district that leads the country — 70% of our graduates go to college, 73% persist.”
Martinez himself is a graduate of Chicago Public Schools, having immigrated to the area at 5 years old from Mexico. He is the oldest of 12 children, and told the board about his childhood growing up in poverty, as his father worked two jobs and his parents never advanced beyond an elementary school education.
Throughout all his answers during the public interview last week, a persistent theme was on closing achievement gaps between students in poverty and well-resourced schools — something that Board Chair Katherine Craven said “we have been stalling out on in Massachusetts for several years,” in explaining why she was voting for Martinez.
Martinez said he would “always be a proponent for all students” but that “systems are designed” for well-resourced, higher-income students, but not for students in poverty, English learners or students with disabilities.
“I think the most strong attributes of both his career and his comments were Superintendent Martinez’s focus on children in poverty, his bedrock belief that poor children can learn, and that low expectations are what need to be driven out of the educator space as firmly as possible,” board member Michael Moriarty of Holyoke said.
DESE is struggling to reorient itself after its long-term accountability system was dismantled by voters last fall, and high school students no longer have to pass the MCAS exam in order to graduate. Members of the board have approached the topic of redesigning district accountability with apprehension, but Martinez called it a “huge opportunity.”
“You talk about this vision of students being biliterate and bilingual, graduating with certifications and being able to go into high wage, livable jobs. Kids going to college with college credit, kids having the capacity to get into highly selective colleges, or our special needs students, getting them into work programs because their parents want them to be independent. But yet, the accountability system at the federal level is not aligned to that. It’s not aligned to that at the state level as well,” Martinez said. He added, “When the North Star is confusing, it creates challenges.”
Before working in Chicago, he also served as the superintendent of the San Antonio Independent School District and superintendent of the Washoe County School District in Nevada.
When he was in San Antonio, Martinez publicly clashed with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott over COVID-19 safety protocols. He said before the pandemic hit, the largely low-income district was considered the fastest improving district in the state.
“I was doing well in San Antonio — pandemic hit, but we were ready for it,” he said. “I had to stand up with some fights that, this time, it was with the governor, with the district attorney, who didn’t believe in our children masking, and didn’t want to prioritize our teachers for vaccinations. And I fought that hard.”
San Antonio schools returned to in-person learning after they were shut down in the spring of 2020, with the fight over which safety protocols to use in the classrooms.
“That was a very public fight. You can look it up. But again, I got through that,” Martinez said.
Martinez was fired from his job as superintendent in Washoe County in 2014 after two years on the job, according to the Reno Gazette Journal. The Gazette Journal said the school board then backtracked, saying it was only an administrative leave, and Martinez filed a wrongful termination suit.
Of the experience, he said during his interview, “The new board came in, wanted to redirect funds that we were really putting aside that were getting great success and increasing graduation rates. Got into a big dispute with them. I stood our ground. I had complete support of the governor and staff at that point, but, unfortunately, wound up having to separate from there.”
A number of board members praised Martinez as someone who stands up for students and “seems to be coming out ahead” every time he faces controversy. They said having someone who can handle tough situations will be important in this political moment.
Massachusetts receives over $2 billion in federal education funding per year, a number that the state cannot fully replace, and officials are bracing for possible cuts from the Trump administration.
Additionally, state education officials say they’re worried the Bay State’s continued focus on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives could draw President Donald Trump’s attention and ire.
“Given our current educational climate, both within the state and with the federal government, we need someone who can stay standing and continue fighting the good fight and continue our path forward in the commonwealth,” board member Ericka Fisher said.