[1] In 2001, she gained national press attention when she and State Senator Margaret Carter (D-Portland) filed suit in U.S. District Court to force the Census Bureau to disclose its adjusted statistical count, which they suspected would reveal an undercount of as many as 43,000 Oregonians.
She ran against the incumbent, Stan Bunn, a Republican whose administration had been marred by an ethics scandal, and Rob Kremer, a longtime charter school proponent.
[9] She was sworn into office on January 6, 2003, to a four-year term to oversee a State Education Department serving more than a half million students in over 1,200 public schools at a time when Oregon had experienced the worst budget shortfalls since World War II.
[1] She also faced turmoil within the agency, demoralized by her predecessor's alleged mismanagement and ethics violations, prompting a group of department employees to present the newly elected superintendent with a petition of grievances in a surprise public confrontation less than three weeks after taking office.
[9] Perhaps in evidence of this frustration, and despite the fact that they are members of the same party, she has not shied away from criticizing Governor Ted Kulongoski over what she has seen as inadequate funding for education in his proposed budgets.
[16] Through most of her first term as Superintendent, Castillo attempted to bolster the effectiveness of the Mastery Certificate programs, part of earlier educational reforms of her predecessor, Norma Paulus, which had failed to live up to expectations.
After watching limited resources being consumed in administration of the programs, she proposed in 2006 that they be phased out in favor of higher standards for high school graduation.
Education department spokesmen responded that the mismanagement issues were due to inadequate management practices of the previous administration which were being addressed under Castillo's leadership, and that the decision to continue the funding was within the discretion of the Superintendent, who was not bound by the notification from the Attorney General's office.
The agency's director of accounting services was accused of embezzling nearly $1 million intended for charter schools, anti-drug youth initiatives and school-based health programs.
[22] She was challenged by Deb Andrews, an Oak Grove education consultant, who said Oregon schools fail to match curriculum to individual students.
[4][26] Castillo resigned in June 2012 to become a vice president of Project Lead the Way, a provider of middle and high school math, science, and engineering curriculum.