State education leaders have been struggling to crack a persistent puzzle. The state is the best when it comes to standardized tests and keeping children in school, but it also has had one of the highest achievement gaps in the country based on students’ family income.

“For all the great work that's happened, we're still not nearly where we need to be,” said Paul Sagan, chair of the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

State education leaders are looking for a new education commissioner to help solve that problem.

“It requires rethinking how school systems operate,”said Paul Sagan, chair of Massachusetts’ Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. “It requires rethinking how teachers are prepared. How we do assessment, even figuring out how well we’re doing, what’s working and what’s not.”

The three finalists for education commissioner all have experiences that address the challenge of closing achievement gaps. Judging from their track records, they’d likely approach the problem from different angles. They include a turnaround guru, a bilingual and special education expert, and a testing and accountability maven.

Testing Maven

As Massachusetts continues to roll out a more rigorous MCAS test, Penny Schwinn’s skills could be useful. As Texas’ deputy commissioner of academics, one of her big achievements was redesigning the state’s student performance report card to give parents tailored recommendations for helping their kids.

Before going to Texas, she worked in Delaware. Mark Murphy, former Delaware education secretary, said he looked for a year for the best testing and accountability expert he could find. That search led him to Schwinn.

“All of her interests are for serving our kids and, most importantly, the young people who struggle the most,” Murphy said.

Schwinn developed her interest in low-income students from an early age.

“I grew up in Sacramento just about 10 miles from where my mom taught,” she said at a 2013 conference of the California Charter School Association. “But I had a significantly different set of opportunities than her students did. These opportunities gave me options, and I’m very aware of the weight of that privilege.”

Bilingual Expert

Massachusetts will be restoring bilingual education after essentially banning the practice for 15 years. It could be handy having an expert like Angelica Infante-Greene guiding that transition.

“I’m very committed to bilingual education,” Infante-Greene said in a promotional video for the education group Chiefs for Change. “I only speak to my children in Spanish. My husband speaks them in English, so when my son was diagnosed we were told not to speak to him in Spanish.”

Infante-Green is the daughter of Dominican immigrants and has a young son with autism. She and her husband continued to speak to their son in two languages.

“When he went to school, they told us that he could not be in a bilingual program because he was autistic, that can't happen," she said. "So I started the first autism inclusion dual language program in the nation.”

As the head of New York state’s bilingual education program, Infante-Green overhauled the state’s approach to immigrant students. Their test scores have gone up during her tenure.

“She has a deep understanding, not only of the context of the issues that these children face, but she also understands what’s needed to help these children be successful,” said Betty Rosa, chancellor of New York State Board of Regents. 

Turnaround Wizard

Massachusetts has a number of struggling school districts. Having Jeff Riley in charge could help the state handle those districts.

Riley is known for doing something many people thought was impossible. He turned around Lawrence’s public schools.

He told a group of Boston leaders in 2013 that it was important to recognize that a school district’s central office can block progress.

 “What we tried to do in Lawrence is to change the mindset away from schools work for us to be the central office works for them. And, how can we make their lives easier so they can focus on the teaching and learning?” Riley said.

At a time when educators are divided about the role of charter schools, unions, and private companies in public schools, Riley called on all of these groups to help him troubleshoot the problems of Lawrence's schools.

“He ended up being exactly what we needed,” said Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera. "It’s somebody who’s not a soldier to any one philosophy.”

The state’s education board will interview all three finalists in public on Jan. 26. Board members plan to make their choice Jan. 29. Education Secretary Jim Peyser will have the final say on who to hire.

Our coverage of K-12 education is made possible with support from the Nellie Mae Education Foundation.