On issues of elementary and secondary education, Assistant Secretary Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana is Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s chief adviser — a crucial position in a time of transition for the American education system.
Her experience turning around the largely impoverished, minority California school district of Pomona as superintendent, as well as her non-profit work with the Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project and the Stupski Foundation, makes her a strong consultant on current education issues.
Path to Power
Success did not come easily to Melendez de Santa Ana. The daughter of Mexican immigrants, she struggled to learn English when she started kindergarten in California’s Montebello school district. In high school, a counselor told her she would never “make it” at the University of California in Los Angeles.
At a Glance
Current Position: Assistant Secretary of Elementary and Secondary Education (since July 2009)
Career History: Superintendent, Pomona Unified School District (2006-2009); Program Manager/Member of Executive Leadership Team, Stupski Foundation (2005-2006); Deputy Superintendent/Assistant Superintendent/Chief Academic Officer, Pomona Unified School District (1999-2005); Director, Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project (1997-1999)
Birthday: 1958
Alma Mater: University of Southern California, Ph.D., 1995; University of California in Los Angeles, B.A., 1981
Spouse: Otto Santa Ana, professor in UCLA’s Department of Chicano Studies
D.C. Office: Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, 400 Maryland Avenue SW, Washington, D.C. 20202; 202-401-0113
But education was a priority for Melendez de Santa Ana, the daughter of a teacher’s aide and granddaughter of a principal. In an against-all-odds story emblematic of the Obama administration, she not only graduated UCLA cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in sociology but also earned a Ph.D. in language, literacy and learning from the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California.
Melendez de Santa Ana acted in a variety of capacities in the Montebello and Pasadena school districts in California from 1992 to 1997, climbing the ladder from teacher to principal to director of instruction. In 1997, she became director of the Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project, which was designed to offer students the stability of an early through secondary education feeder program.
In 1999, she turned to Pomona, where she served as deputy superintendent, assistant superintendent and chief academic officer.
She spent two years at the San Francisco-based Stupski Foundation, a non-profit where she worked as a program manager on initiatives to improve student performance in districts in California and Illinois.
In 2006, Melendez de Santa Ana returned to Pomona and became superintendent of the approximately 30,000-student school district. Recognizing the improvements she made for Pomona — including record increases in the district’s Academic Proficiency Index and the creation of specialized health and engineering schools in partnership with California universities — the American Association of School Administrators voted her the 2009 California Superintendent of the Year.
In March 2009, a video titled “Is Anybody Listening?” made by Pomona students on how the economic downturn is affecting their families and their future prompted President Barack Obama to meet with the students.
Obama announced Melendez de Santa Ana’s nomination as assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education in May 2009, and the Senate confirmed her on July 24, 2009.
The Issues
The Office of Elementary and Secondary Education is responsible for recommending and managing policies that promote student achievement and educational equality at the elementary and secondary levels by supporting local and state efforts.
As assistant secretary, Melendez de Santa Ana is poised to shape the administration’s efforts to reform No Child Left Behind as it reauthorizes the program. In March 2010, the administration announced plans to measure improvements in student achievement in broader terms than standardized math and reading scores, considering more subjects and gauging growth on a more individual basis.
Melendez de Santa Ana also supports the Obama administration’s policy of holding teachers accountable for student achievement, which it has promoted in programs including Race to the Top. It’s a position that has proven controversial with the national teachers’ unions, who conspicuously failed to invite administration officials to speak at their 2010 conferences.
Having once been the child of immigrants, struggling to learn English as a kindergartner, Melendez de Santa Ana also focuses on English language learning as an educational equality issue. The Obama administration’s proposed 2011 budget includes $800 million for its English Learning Education program.
The Network
While Melendez de Santa Ana was not the best known superintendent, she built her reputation in part by being a fellow in the Broad Superintendents Academy in 2006. Started by billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad, the academy offers training to become instrumental in educational reform. Carl Edward Harris, who is deputy assistant secretary for policy and strategic initiatives at the U.S. Department of Education, is also an alumnus of the academy.
Campaign Contributions
Melendez de Santa Ana has not made any campaign contributions in at least the past 20 years, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Sources:
MyTeacherMyHero.com, “Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana.”
Kuznia, Rob, Hispanic Business, “Woman of the Year: Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana (EXCLUSIVE),” April 7, 2010.
Castillo, Gloria Angelina, EGPNews.com, “Montebello Native Takes A Top US Education Post,” August 20, 2009.
U.S. Department of Education, “Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana, Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education–Biography.”
The Annenberg Institute, “The Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project (LAAMP).”
Village Academy, “Is Anybody Listening?” 2009.
Demers, Ben, InsideSoCal.com, “Village Academy students meet Obama,” March 19, 2009.
The White House, “President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts,” May 19, 2009.
U.S. Department of Education, “Office of Elementary and Secondary Education.”
Anderson, Nick, The Washington Post, “Obama: Revise No Child Left Behind law,” March 14, 2010.
Dillon, Sam, The New York Times, “Teachers’ Union Shuns Obama Aides at Convention,” July 4, 2010.
U.S. Department of Education, “Remarks of Dr. Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana to the National Association for Bilingual Education,” February 3, 2010.
McNeil, Michele, Education Week, “Pomona Schools Chief Tapped as Top K-12 Official,” May 19, 2009.
The Broad Foundation, “Eli and Edythe Broad.”
The Broad Foundation, “Background.”
The Broad Foundation, “Featured Alumni.”
Center for Responsive Politics, “Donor Lookup: Melendez de Santa Ana.”
Center for Responsive Politics, “Donor Lookup: Melendez, Thelma.”