Massachusetts got a new Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education last summer. DESE Commissioner Pedro Martinez was born in Mexico and hails from Chicago. He sat down with GBH Morning Edition host Mark Herz to talk about his first year on the job so far and some of the major issues he’s taking on — including high school graduation requirements and ongoing disparities between and inside the state’s school districts. What follows is a lightly edited transcript.

Mark Herz: So let’s start with graduation requirements. This has been a big deal here, and some changes coming down, people are working on it. The big news is that MCAS will not be used as a graduation requirement. The test will stick around still though — is that right?

Pedro Martinez: That’s right. And in fact, it’s really important to remind our community, our teachers know this, that MCAS still exists. Of course for grades through eight, nothing has changed. In the high school, even though MCAS is still being provided, it won’t be counted as a graduation requirement, but it still serves as an important tool for two things. One, it drives accountability. So it tells us whether high schools are doing well or not, it is one of the measures we use.

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In addition, we also know that students who meet our standards at some point along the way into high school or into 10th grade — those are the students that we see the most success with. So I just want to keep emphasizing, it’s still important, it still matters, especially because I know that our students have gotten sort of mixed messages. Our teachers know this, our school leaders know this, and districts know this, but I want our families to also understand that.

Herz: So let’s get right into what people want to see, what your vision is, Gov. Maura Healey’s vision, the teacher’s vision. Everybody has a seat at the table, including teachers. And it’s being branded as a re-imagining of graduation requirements, right?

Martinez: So first of all, the ultimate goal is we want every child in Massachusetts — whether they’re graduating in the Eastern part of the state, the Western part of the state — that they have the same opportunities. And so what the new graduation standards are really — what we’re envisioning that they will do — is they’ll prepare every child for that. Our public universities right now require four years of math, three years of lab sciences, four years of English or English language arts, three years of social studies. They also want electives like art and language and PE.

So what we know right now is that students who both are meeting our standards and have access to that content, those are the students that not only go to college, they actually graduate from college, and we call that Mass Core. So we see that as a foundational element. Now, could there be some tweaks to it? Absolutely, because as I go to career tech classes, I’m seeing some of our teachers really bringing math together with some of the shops, and some of trades, and I think that’s the best way of having the best of both worlds.

Herz: And let’s talk about vocational tech. I mean, in this age of questions about cost-to-benefit ratio [of college] and the rise of AI, people are saying to [pursue] hands-on stuff. And where do you see vocational tech in terms of the portfolio of what’s important and what kind of support it needs here?

Martinez: For us, it’s about what drives our students’ passion. So let’s say, for example, I want to go in the medical field. You can be a technician. You can be a researcher. You can be in the labs. You can be a doctor, of course, or a nurse. And so for us, it’s really bringing these worlds together. So imagine having state-of-the-art classrooms, which I see, like medical classrooms that have medical grade equipment. So students in high school, getting exposure to these concepts, then imagine also us bringing our college partners together, where kids can get college credit through our early college programs.

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Now you have a student who can see an entire path ahead of them. They can graduate ahead with college credit and certifications, and then [we] let them decide where they want to go. Because for example, they may want to start working right away and get a certification to be a technician, nothing wrong with that. But maybe they say, you know, I want to keep going and I want to get my bachelor’s degree or I want to get a graduate degree, because I want to do even something more in this profession. For us, it’s about having children see that path and be able to make those kind of choices.

Herz: And you mentioned state-of-the-art equipment, but there’s a lot of stuff going on in the infrastructure of schools that’s not state-of-the art. There was a report from Mass Inc that found that exacerbating some long-standing achievement gaps that I’d like to hear you address. And this is tied up with it — our overcrowded and unsafe schools, and that’s being faced by students of color and low-income students disproportionately. So how do you want to address all that?

Martinez: So I think first of all, I’m very excited that our state actually has a state capital program. So not every state has that. And one of the things that I love here is that we actually do help districts to try to renovate their schools. For example in Lawrence, we renovated over three schools in the last five years. And so I think one, we’ve got to continue that that work. We have beautiful cities, but they’re old cities. So we have to modernize our schools. That’s one area in terms of achievement gaps, it’s almost an 80-20 rule. So I see about 20% of our children that are really, really struggling. And I see an opportunity for our agency to partner with our districts to really make sure that we’re grounded in best practices, that we make sure we align our resources.

The state has put a significant investment with the Student Opportunity Act with an increase in Chapter 70. So we’re early in that work, but I’m excited about what’s possible. That’s roughly a little more than 20% percent of the state. The other 80% of the state, for me, it’s really about us elevating student achievement. And look, I get it. Our districts right now, we have tight budgets. There are a lot of challenges. We’re going to really partner with districts on both fronts — making sure that we continue to raise that urgency. On average when you look at that 80% — they’re just below meeting our standards on average. So that means if we can just continue to work with our districts, there is no reason why we can’t get back to where we were at pre-pandemic and even stronger.

Herz: Do you have an accountability metric that you’re going to put out there? Like, do you have numbers you want to hit in terms of achievement gaps?

Martinez: So when we announced our results, one of the things we saw [was] some gains specifically in literacy. We were flat in math, but only a few of our districts were at pre-pandemic levels in terms of both reading and math — only about 13 districts out of 350 or so districts. That’s where we’re starting. So that number has to grow. At the same time, we want to make sure that we’re looking at achievement gaps. And this is where, again, we go back to the schools that are struggling the most. How do we make sure that we meet them where they’re at? Just like we model for teachers -- to meet children where they’re at, we’re going to meet districts where they are at.

Herz: Do you have a timeline for any of that?

Martinez: So this will be a multi-year initiative that we’re going to be working on, [and] we’re actually working on it right now. Over the next 10 years, we want to set up our system so that every high-poverty student, once they get to high school, will start on a college path — whether some of them will be advanced enough to start in ninth grade, some of them will start in 10th, and no later than 11th.

Herz: Well, lastly, you do have a headwind you’re facing here. The latest K-12 enrollment figures came out. We’re at our lowest level in three decades. In Boston, schools are closing, jobs are going away. How worried are you about this?

Martinez: I think it’s a nationwide struggle. We are seeing less students coming from abroad, less migrant students — again, this is what we saw this year. So in the past, what it was doing was offsetting lower birth rates. Longer term, I’m optimistic. Longer term, I think we’re going to be stable here in Massachusetts. I mean, we have a wonderful commonwealth that frankly, once our families are here, they love living here. So I see longer term that we’re going to be stable. In the short term, we’ll have these struggles. But I believe that right now, it’s just really us partnering with our districts, getting them through this, and then making sure that we’re actually using the resources we have today to use them in the best way possible.