Hall Pass: Your Ticket to Understanding School Board Politics, Edition #138

By

Ballotpedia staff

Welcome to Hall Pass, a newsletter written to keep you plugged into the conversations driving  school board governance, the politics surrounding it, and education policy. 

In today’s edition, you’ll find:

  • On the issues: The debate over eighth-grade algebra  
  • School board filing deadlines, election results, and recall certifications
  • Chicago Public Schools board fires CEO Pedro Martinez weeks before new 21-member board set to meet for first time
  • Extracurricular: education news and numbers from around the web
  • Candidate Connection survey
  • School board candidates per seat up for election

Reply to this email to share reactions or story ideas!

On the issues: The debate over eighth-grade algebra

In this section, we curate reporting, analysis, and commentary on the issues school board members deliberate when they set out to offer the best education possible in their district. Missed an issue? Click here to see the previous education debates we’ve covered.

Should schools teach algebra in eighth grade by default?

Steven Yoder writes that after Minnesota adopted a 2006 law requiring algebra in eighth grade, overall math achievement scores in the state fell. Yoder says such requirements make students feel negatively about math and don’t boost enrollment in advanced math courses like calculus in high school. 

Liza Bondurant writes that the Dallas Independent School District’s policy of teaching Algebra 1 in eighth grade didn’t hurt math scores and helped triple the number of students in accelerated programs. She says teaching advanced courses in middle school was especially helpful for Black and Latino students who faced disadvantages in opt-in programs which require a parent or teacher recommendation for students to enroll. 

One state tried algebra for all eighth graders. It hasn’t gone well | Steven Yoder, Hechinger Report 

“Minnesota went the opposite route, effectively giving students the same opportunities by placing everyone on an accelerated track. Its experience suggests early universal algebra isn’t a cure-all for boosting the share of students in advanced math. ‘That replicates what most of the studies have found,’ said Scott Peters, senior research scientist at educational assessment organization NWEA.* Early algebra does appear to slightly boost enrollment in advanced math courses in the short term — for example, more 10th graders taking Algebra II — but the effect fades as students get older, he said. And there could be a downside. A 2015 study found that a brief experiment by California to enroll all eighth graders in algebra backfired, lowering test scores in large districts, though it had little effect on small and mid-sized ones. ‘If you push a kid too far, too fast, they might be either less interested or feel defeated or it hurts their self-efficacy and confidence in math,’ study co-author Andrew McEachin said.”

Why expanding access to algebra is a matter of civil rights | Liza Bondurant, The Conversation

“Under an opt-in policy, students need a parent or teacher recommendation to take honors math in middle school and Algebra 1 in eighth grade. That policy led both to low enrollment and very little diversity in honors math. Some parents, especially those who are Black or Latino, were not aware how to enroll their students in advanced classes due to a lack of communication in many districts. … Dallas ISD’s policy overhaul aimed to foster inclusivity and bridge educational gaps among students. Through this initiative, every middle school student, regardless of background, was enrolled in honors math, the pathway that leads to taking Algebra 1 in eighth grade, unless they opted out. Flipping the switch from opt-in to opt-out led to a dramatic increase in the number of Black and Latino learners, who constitute the majority of Dallas students. And the district’s overall math scores remained steady. About 60% of Dallas ISD eighth graders are now taking Algebra 1, triple the prior level. Moreover, more than 90% are passing the state exam.”

School board update: filing deadlines, election results, and recall certifications

In 2024, Ballotpedia covered elections for more than 25,000 school board seats in 36 states. We’re expanding our coverage each year with our eye on covering the country’s more than 80,000 school board seats.  

States with school board filing deadlines in the next 30 days   

Ballotpedia researchers are hard at work collecting filing deadline information for our 2025 school board election coverage. Here’s a collection of some upcoming deadlines and elections.

Alaska

The Anchorage School District, the largest in Alaska by student enrollment, has a filing deadline on Jan. 24 for a general election on April 1. 

Upcoming school board elections

South Carolina

Ballotpedia will cover a special general election for an at-large seat on the McCormick County School District school board on Jan. 14. Shay Blair-Franklin, Mark Koeppen, Talisa Thomas, and Latoya Wilkerson are running in the election. 

McCormick County Schools enrolls approximately 600 students. McCormick County is located north of Augusta, Georgia. 

Wisconsin

Ballotpedia will cover primary elections for seven school districts in Wisconsin, including the state’s two largest school districts, on Feb. 18. These elections will occur in DeForest Area School District, Madison Metropolitan School District, McFarland School District, Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District, Milwaukee Public Schools, Sun Prairie Area School District, and Verona Area School District.  The general elections for these districts are scheduled for April 1.

Oklahoma 

This year, Ballotpedia will provide comprehensive coverage of the Sooner State’s school board elections, including in Tulsa Public Schools, Oklahoma City Public Schools, and Edmond Public Schools—the state’s three largest districts by student enrollment. 

Primaries are scheduled for Feb. 11, while general elections are scheduled for April 1.

In Oklahoma, elections are canceled if only one candidate files to run for a seat. If two candidates file, the primary is canceled and both advance to a general election. If more than two candidates file, a candidate can win the primary outright with more than 50% of the vote. When that doesn’t happen, the two top vote-getters advance to the general.

In 2023, Oklahoma held elections for 556 school board seats. Although Oklahoma’s school board elections are nonpartisan, Ballotpedia used publicly-available voter files and candidate filing information to identify candidate partisan affiliations, finding that:

  • Registered Democrats won 24%
  • Registered Republicans won 72%
  • Registered independents or a minor party candidates won 4%

Ballotpedia also found that 92% of incumbents who ran for re-election won, but 82% ran unopposed. Of the 80 incumbents who faced opposition, 47% lost.

Click here to read our full 2023 analysis of Oklahoma’s school board elections. 

Chicago Public Schools board fires CEO Pedro Martinez weeks before new 21-member board set to meet for first time

On Dec. 20, the seven-member Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Board of Education voted unanimously to fire CEO Pedro Martinez. The dismissal capped a roller-coaster year for the country’s third-largest district that saw the board’s mass resignation over disagreements with Mayor Brandon Johnson, the city’s first ever school board elections, and the pending expansion of the board under a state law adopted in 2021. These events have taken place against the backdrop of ongoing contract negotiations between Martinez’s administration and the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU). 

We’ve covered Chicago Public Schools in this newsletter before. You can read our previous coverage here, here, and here.

Here’s a look at what the dismissal means, how we got here, and what comes next. 

The details: The seven-member board voted to fire Martinez without cause. According to the terms of Martinez’s contract, he will stay on as CEO for six months and receive approximately $130,000 in severance pay. Mayor Johnson appointed all seven members of the current board in October 2024, after the mass resignation of the previous board. 

Board members left the meeting after the vote without comment. Martinez said, “Obviously I’m disappointed by the board’s decision tonight. Leading the system that shaped me has been an opportunity of a lifetime.” 

Earlier on Dec. 20, Martinez sued all seven board members individually in the Cook County Circuit Court to stop them from removing him or changing his role, arguing the board members breached his contract. Crain’s Chicago Business reported on Dec. 20 that Mayor Johnson had floated appointing a co-CEO to close contract negotiations with the CTU. Martinez asked the court for a restraining order “to prevent the board from taking action.” 

The Chicago Board of Education unanimously selected Martinez as CEO in 2021. 

On Dec. 24, Cook County Circuit Judge Joel Chupack (D) granted Martinez’s request for a temporary restraining order against the board, saying, “What’s been raised is the defendant’s obstruction to Mr. Martinez performing his obligations. The court finds that Mr. Martinez has established that his duties as chief executive officer have been diminished, not merely modified.” 

On Dec. 23, three board members had entered a room where members of Martinez’s administration were negotiating with the CTU. Martinez’s attorney, William Quinlan, sent a letter to board members that said: “We have become aware that some or all of you have attempted to taken [sic] steps to attempt to intervene in the collective bargaining negotiations…We are writing to demand that you immediately cease and desist with any such actions which would unlawfully infringe on and interfere with Mr. Martinez’s authority, as CEO, to act as the sole [sic] representative of the Board in these negotiations.”

In granting the temporary restraining order, Chupack prohibited board members from attending contract negotiations without Martinez’s permission. 

The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Jan. 9. 

The context: On Sept. 24, Martinez wrote an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune saying that Mayor Johnson had asked for his resignation. Johnson denied reporting that he had asked Johnson to step down. Only the board can remove Martinez.  

Over the summer, Martinez and the board clashed with Johnson over staffing cuts in the 2024-25 budget. The board voted 7-0 on July 25 to pass a $9.9 billion budget for the upcoming school year. Johnson, along with the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), opposed aspects of the plan, which proposed cutting some support staff as a way to close a $500 million budget deficit. Johnson had recommended CPS take out a short-term, high-interest $300 million loan to cover teacher raises and pension payments.

Martinez’s administration rejected the loan proposal. CPS Chief Financial Officer Miroslava Mejia Krug said: “We can all recognize that issuing debt has not been a good thing for CPS.”

On Oct. 4, all seven board members resigned. Johnson announced replacements in the days following. 

CPS and CTU have been in contract negotiations for months. The budget, passed on July 25, did not include money for a new contract with the CTU. Negotiations over that contract are ongoing. The CTU has asked for 9% annual raises, while the district has offered between 4-5%.

Further complicating the matter, the Chicago Board of Education will expand from seven members to 21 members on Jan. 15, under the provisions of a bill Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) signed into law in 2021. On Nov. 5, Chicago voters elected 10 of the members to be seated on Jan. 15, while Mayor Johnson announced 10 of the remaining 11 appointments in December. According to Chalkbeat, “The mayor’s appointees included most of the current board members as well as losing school board candidates who were endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union, a close ally of the mayor’s.” 

Extracurricular: education news from around the web

This section contains links to recent education-related articles from around the internet. If you know of a story we should be reading, reply to this email to share it with us! 

Take our Candidate Connection survey to reach voters in your district

Today, we’re including survey responses from three of the four candidates that were running in a special election for two at-large seats on the Phoenix Union High School District school board on March 11. The special redo election was cancelled on Jan. 6. 

The election was initially held on Nov. 5, 2024, but a U.S. district court judge invalidated the results because ballots were printed with incorrect instructions directing voters to select two candidates instead of one. In 1990, a court ruled that the method of selecting two candidates for the two at-large seats violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act. 

The candidates who appeared on the November ballot were: incumbent Aaron Marquez, Debbie Cross, Francisco Pastor-Rivera, and Aden Ramirez. In the Nov. 5 election, Pastor-Rivera received the most votes, followed by Marquez, Cross, and Ramirez, respectively. 

On Jan. 6, U.S. District Court Judge G. Murray Snow granted Maricopa County’s request to cancel the redo election after Cross and Ramirez withdrew from the contest, leaving just two candidates, Marquez and Pastor-Rivera,  for the two open seats. Cross, who was running for an at-large seat, will serve on the board in a ward position until 2026 after district superintendent Steve Watson appointed her on Dec. 31 to fill a position vacated by former member Stephanie Parra. Ramirez withdrew from the race for professional considerations according to a statement. 

Cross, Pastor-Rivera, and Ramirez completed the survey. 

Here’s how the candidates answered the question, “What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Cross: “As a governing board member, I want to create a supportive environment in which all students thrive.” 

Click here to read the rest of Cross’ responses. 

Pastor-Rivera: “(1) Improve student attendance and literacy rates (2) Expand mental health resources (3) Strengthen support for educators and staff (4) Ensure every student is equipped for their next step, be it college, trade school, or the workforce.”

Click here to read the rest of Pastor-Rivera’s responses. 

Ramirez: “Aden is deeply passionate about advancing educational equity, ensuring that every student, regardless of background, has access to the same high-quality opportunities. He believes that fully funding public education is critical to providing the resources needed for all students to thrive. By equipping schools with modern tools, innovative programs, and support systems, Aden is committed to preparing students for future careers, ensuring they have the skills and knowledge to succeed in an ever-evolving world.”

Click here to read the rest of Ramirez’s responses. 

Everyone deserves to know their candidates. However, we know it can be hard for voters to find information about their candidates, especially for local offices such as school boards. That’s why we created Candidate Connection—a survey designed to help candidates tell voters about their campaigns, their issues, and so much more. 

In the 2024 election cycle, 6,539 candidates completed the survey, including more than 500 school board candidates. 

If you’re a school board candidate or incumbent, click here to take the survey.

The survey contains over 30 questions, and you can choose the ones you feel will best represent your views to voters. If you complete the survey, a box with your answers will display on your Ballotpedia profile. Your responses will also appear in our sample ballot.

And if you’re not running for school board, but there is an election in your community this year, share the link with the candidates and urge them to take the survey!