Leading educational publisher Benchmark Education Company is pleased to announce its new Educational Advisory Board. Comprised of leading school administrator veterans from major cities across the country, the Board will help guide the Company’s publishing plans to best support the needs of today’s students and educators.
“We’re honored and grateful to have such an experienced, knowledgeable, and passionate group of experts partner with us to help us serve our customers even more effectively,” BEC founder and CEO Tom Reycraft said. “Each member has broken ground in a number of ways in the field of education. The guidance of the Board will be invaluable as we continue our mission to ensure that every student finds life-long inspiration, growth, and success through language and literacy.”
BEC’s Educational Advisory Board is made up of the following members:
Dwight Jones, Advisory Board Chairman (Colorado Springs, Colorado), is one of a handful of education leaders to have led both a school district and a state agency. He has served as Colorado Commissioner of Education, Superintendent of Clark County School District, in Nevada, and Interim Superintendent of Denver Public Schools. A valued mentor to education leaders nationwide, he is also the founder and president of Education Practice and Policy Partners, a consulting firm advising education donors, investors, and executives.
Thomas Aurelio Davis (San Diego, CA) is a former middle and high school bilingual science teacher, coach, and administrator, as well as a businessman. As the founder of Net4EdAccess, Tom has focused on connecting the priorities of the business world to meet the needs of the education field. He currently serves as Director of Business Development at the Center for Educational Innovation in New York and sits on the advisory boards of several nonprofit, education-supporting organizations.
Michael Hinojosa, Ed.D. (Dallas, TX), retired as superintendent of Dallas Independent School District at the end of the 2021-2022 school year, after serving 27 years as a superintendent/CEO of six public education systems and more than 40 years in public education. In 2020 he received the Urban Educator of the Year award from the Council of the Great City Schools, the nation’s highest honor recognizing outstanding contributions in urban education.
Christina Kishimoto, Ed.D. (Honolulu, HI), is the founder and CEO of Voice4Equity LLC and a Clinical Professor of Education at the USC Rossier School of Education. She previously served as State Superintendent of Education for the State of Hawaii. Christina was also District Superintendent in Hartford, Connecticut, and Gilbert, Arizona, and a member of several boards, including the Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents, of which she served as president.
Marcus Newsome, Ed.D. (Washington D.C./Baltimore, MD), is currently the director of the Virginia Superintendents Leadership Academy, where he provides professional development and mentoring for superintendents and executives. He is also the president of the National Bible College and Seminary in Fort Washington, Maryland. Marcus served for 16 years as a superintendent in Virginia. In 2015 his work as a national leader in digital education was celebrated at the White House.
Mike Poore (Little Rock, AR) retired as superintendent of Little Rock School District at the end of the 2021-2022 school year. In 2021, he was named Superintendent of the Year by the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators. Mike has been a teacher, coach, athletic director, assistant principal, and principal, and served in other top administrative roles, including superintendent of Sheridan School District in Denver, Colorado, and Bentonville Public Schools in Bentonville, Arkansas.
Alicia Thompson, Ed.D. (Wichita, KS), is the first woman and first person of color to serve as superintendent of Wichita Public Schools, Kansas’s largest school district. Her major achievements include guiding the district through the COVID-19 pandemic, raising graduation rates, and expanding the district’s career technology programs. Alicia started out as an elementary-school teacher and went on to building-level and district-level leadership. She retired at the end of the 2022-2023 school year.
ABOUT BENCHMARK EDUCATION COMPANY
Benchmark Education Company (BEC) is a leading publisher of core, supplemental, and intervention literacy and language resources in English and Spanish. BEC is also a provider of exceptional professional development to educators.
BEC is recognized as a responsive publisher that offers equally rigorous and engaging digital, print, and hybrid learning materials grounded in the Science of Reading research. BEC monitors research outcomes carefully to create effective foundational resources that include strong decoding materials with systematic and explicit instruction and high-quality resources focused on language development and comprehension. BEC’s content-rich and authentic texts offer instruction in close reading and analysis, multiple perspectives, and authentic literature while building world knowledge and reflecting the individuality of every student in each diverse classroom.
Family owned and operated, BEC is committed to partnering with educators to provide the best for all students through resources of exceptional quality, world-class professional learning, and effective and dedicated customer support.
