San Antonio superintendent shares ideas
Pedro Martinez credited with transforming school district
Pedro Martinez wants to prove people wrong by demonstrating that students who have been written off, especially because of poverty, can rise to academic challenges.
Martinez, superintendent of San Antonio Independent School District, has undertaken a transformation of the 50,000-student district, what he called the poorest school district in Texas and one of the poorest in the country. That transformation has included opening new schools, replacing 80 percent of principals and terminating some 200 teachers.
On Wednesday, Martinez spoke to a room full of education and business leaders at the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce luncheon to talk about the gains he’s made in about four years and what else he would like to see for the school district.
Touting a graduation rate projected to be at 85 percent for 2018, the superintendent talked about shaking up the district one school at a time.
One of his tactics was to use U.S. Census data to break up the district by median household income. He used this to analyze the needs of specific schools and to diversify schools with a collective of socioeconomic backgrounds.
Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education President David Peercy said he thought Martinez had “lots of exciting ideas” and was particularly interested in this block analysis.
The San Antonio superintendent — whose family moved from Mexico and raised him in Chicago — said his changes aim to recruit the best leaders in schools to turn around test scores, college readiness, and admission and graduation rates.
Martinez also emphasized the importance of community partnership, which Peercy said was spot on.
But the work isn’t done. The school district is still in the implementation stage of some accountability systems and the superintendent has had just four years on the job.
Some things Martinez is hoping to ramp up: teacher evaluation measures and SAT performance. He is also supporting data-driven initiatives, such as grading schools and districts.
But the superintendent didn’t sugarcoat pushback from the union or having to raise property taxes to get some of his work done.
APS Superintendent Raquel Reedy spoke with Martinez about visiting the Texas school district to learn more, Peercy told the Journal, highlighting that SAISD and APS are both members of the Council of Great City Schools.