Theodore Martinez, who was honored as an Alma Exley Scholar in 2018, has received a Doctor of Education degree from the University of South Carolina.

Dr. Martinez is a fourth-grade teacher at the Academy of International Studies, a public elementary school in South Windsor operated by the Capitol Region Education Council (CREC).

While teaching there, he also has taught in the Connecticut Teacher Residency Program, a program that offers an alternate route to certification through residency experience, and he has taught college-level courses in the Connecticut Department of Corrections through the Second Chance Pell Program.

Others with Doctorates

Dr. Martinez, who grew up in Hartford and Windsor, is the sixth Alma Exley Scholar to have earned a doctorate after being honored by the scholarship program. The others are Miguel Cardona, Khalil Graham, Justis Lopez, Vernon-James Riley, and Violet Jiménez Sims.

Three other Alma Exley Scholars already had doctorates when they received their teaching certification through Connecticut’s Alternate Route to Certification. They are Sibani Sengupta, Santosha Oliver, and Zakiah Parrish.

This means that nine of the 40 Alma Exley Scholars honored since 1995 have doctorates.

Multiple Degrees

Dr. Martinez, left, with other members of his doctor of education cohort.

Dr. Martinez holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Connecticut, a master’s degree in psychology from the University of Southern New Hampshire, and a master’s degree in education from the University of Hartford. He is working on completing a Certificate in Advanced Graduate Studies in Advanced Educational Leadership with the University of New England. It’s a two-year program which will lead to his 092 Intermediate Administrator Certification. He is a graduate of the Metropolitan Learning Center, a CREC high school in Bloomfield.

Different Perspectives of Diverse Students

Dr. Martinez’s doctoral dissertation is titled “Freedom Looks Different for Everyone: Transforming Pre-Packaged Literacy Programs Through Critical Literacy.” In his doctoral studies, he concluded that pre-packaged educational programs erase the identities of students who are culturally and linguistically diverse.

He observed that fourth graders were being taught about the Revolutionary War from a Eurocentric, monocultural perspective. Therefore, he developed an approach, rooted in critical literacy, to incorporate the perspectives of the variety of people living in America at that time: enslaved and free Blacks, Native Americans, and white colonialists including Loyalists and Patriots.

As a result of his research, one of his students was able to identify that “Everyone wanted freedom, but freedom looked different for everyone.”

Dr. Martinez asked, “How do I, as a fourth-grade teacher, use literacy to increase representations of culturally and linguistically diverse learners? What trends emerge in student learning when fourth graders utilize critical literacy to challenge master narratives presented in pre-packaged literacy programs?”

In teaching content such as the American Revolution, teachers need to find ways to increase representations of culturally and linguistically diverse learners and critical literacy offers a framework to do so, Dr. Martinez concluded.

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Now you can call them Doctor.

Two Alma Exley Scholars have received Doctor of Educational Leadership degrees from Harvard University. They are Dr. Vernon-James Riley, whom we honored in 2008, and Dr. Justis Lopez, honored in 2015. 

Dr. Lopez, left, and Dr. Riley

Educational Entrepreneurs

While at Harvard, Dr. Riley established an educational consulting enterprise, VJR Consulting Firm, which supports school districts with leadership coaching, professional development, and strategic planning services. Already, Dr. Riley and his team have trained more than 10,000 educators in cities across the country. Read more.

Dr. Lopez is re-invigorating the organization he established as an undergraduate, Just Experience, in the educational social entrepreneurship sector. As founder of this enterprise, he has created curriculum for classes, facilitated workshops, hosted hundreds of events, and has performed as a DJ for clients’ significant life events. He is also creating other educational initiatives “that are rooted in healing, justice, joy, and liberation.” Read more.

From Harlem to Harvard

Dr. Riley grew up in Harlem, New York City, and earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale. He went on to earn master’s degrees from Michigan State University and Teachers College at Columbia University.

Early in his career, he was founding dean of students at Summit Academy in Brooklyn, N.Y., and founding director of operations at Amani Public Charter School in Mount Vernon, N.Y. Subsequently, he served as principal at North Star Academy Charter School in Newark, New Jersey, and vice provost of National School Leader Programs at the Relay Graduate School of Education in Washington, D.C.

Vernon-James Riley presenting his capstone defense at Harvard.

A Son of Manchester

Dr. Lopez hails from Manchester, Connecticut. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Connecticut and a master’s degree in educational entrepreneurship from the University of Pennsylvania.

He began his career teaching social studies at Manchester High School. He also taught social studies at a public high school in the Bronx, N.Y. Then he served as alumni affairs coordinator at the Council for Opportunity in Education, Washington, D.C.

Future secretary of education? Justis Lopez tries out the chair of U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona when visiting his office in Washington. 

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