Education in Puerto Rico
The school was free of charge and the courses taught were art, history, Latin language, literature, philosophy, science and theology.
The first commissioner 1900 – 1902 was Martin Grove Brumbaugh, who was the first professor pedagogy at the University of Pennsylvania, and was president of Juniata College.
Samuel McCune Lindsay, appointed by the Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States served as Education Commissioner 1902 – 1904 continued the policy preparing Puerto Rico for American statehood.
[9] Laws passed in 1899 required education in Puerto Rico to consist of a public system for ages six to eighteen, to limit the student/teacher ratio to 50:1, and to be coed.
[10] Julian Go argues that the primary goals of American policy were: According to Go, in actual practice there was less and less local autonomy and more and more centralized control of education.
[12] The commissioner of education led efforts to introduce American culture in preparation for a democratic society that would be admitted as an equal state to the union.
[14] English is currently taught as a second language beginning from first grade and continuing straight through senior year of high school.
[citation needed][dubious – discuss] Following American principles of separation of church and state, public school education became independent of religious instruction.
By 1913, the US government had invested 14 million dollars on public education in the island and 1,050 schools had been built in rural areas.
[16] Despite the dominance of Protestant and secular public education, Catholic schools also expanded during the early twentieth century.
[20] These categories are based on the educational levels covered: Some Puerto Rican schools, most notably in rural areas, offer kinder to ninth grade (K–9) at the same institution and are referred to as Segunda Unidad (English: Second Unit).
To this end, public schools in Puerto Rico provide free and secular education at the elementary and secondary levels.
All of them being magnet schools, which graduate the highest scores on the island of the College Board's PEAU (Latin America's equivalent of the SAT).
The NCLB, No Child Left Behind Act included Puerto Rico until president Obama approved a waiver on October 22, 2013.
[21] Education Department spokeswoman Yolanda Rosaly told The Associated Press on May 5, 2017 that approximately 27,000 students will be moved, as a result of 184 public school planned closings.
The economic crisis in Puerto Rico drove the decision to close the schools, which officials have said will save millions of dollars.
The reform bill hopes to give Puerto Rico's public school teachers the first raise in over ten years; an idea that some find skeptical.
Luis Muñoz Marín, the first popularly elected governor in 1948 appointed Mariano Villaronga Toro, Commissioner of Education on the island, and with him, an immediate switch back to using Spanish for instruction.
[25] In 2012, pro-statehood Governor Luis Fortuño caused controversy when he proposed that all courses in Puerto Rico public schools be taught in English instead of Spanish as they currently are.
They also allege that the lack of regulation has led them to confront difficulties when interacting with the government, as evidenced in the case of a home schooled student who was denied federal Social Security benefits.
After careful consideration of all the evidence, the undersigned Administrative Law Judge concludes the claimant did not attend a sanctioned homeschool program approved by the Puerto Rican legislature within the meaning of the Social Security Act from December 1, 2003 to August 1, 2004.Over half of the students entering college level institutions in Puerto Rico, never graduate: 41% of four-year students in public universities and 33% in private institutions get a diploma.
There is one state-run system, the Puerto Rico Technological Institute in San Juan, which possesses several programs at the local level and whose costs are significantly below market prices.
Its board of trustees, chancellor, rectors, deans, and program directors change whenever a different political party gains power (about every 4 or 8 years), as the university is a government-owned corporation.
Almost all its schools and programs rank first on the island although competition has increased in the last decades with private universities gaining track at a fast pace.
[citation needed] See List of colleges and universities in Puerto Rico A study showed that about 19.10% of all students do not finish 9th grade.
The governments are trying to cut funding from education in order to restore the island after all the hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico.
[42] Moreover, studies published in 2003, 2005, and 2007 by the United States National Center for Education Statistics as part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) concluded that Puerto Rico falls below basic levels when compared to the United States[43][44][45] – being basic defined as "partial mastery of the knowledge and skills that are fundamental for proficient work" according to NAEP.
In particular the findings showed that: As a result of this, 1,321 out of 1,466 public schools in Puerto Rico (about 90%) do not comply with the academic progress requirements established by the No Child Left Behind Act.
[46] In 2013, the Nation's Report Card concluded that Puerto Rico falls below basic levels when compared to the United States.
[47] In 2017, Puerto Rico again ranked dead last in fourth-grade and eighth-grade math scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests.
