Oct. 8, 2002 – A recent compliance agreement entered into by the federal government and the territory will buy the Education Department an additional three years to fulfill the mandates of the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind Act, signed into law last January, V.I. lawmakers were told on Tuesday.
The Senate Education Committee members also were told, however, that in the St. Thomas-St. John district, teachers have yet to receive new textbooks for this academic year.
Although the Senate Education Committee hearing began with wary comments from a pessimistic Sen. Norman Jn Baptiste, committee chair, acting Education Commissioner Noreen Michael nonetheless presented an upbeat report on progress and plans to improve the territory's embattled public school system.
"Before having heard anything, I have to tell you, I am not optimistic," Baptiste said, noting that Education issues dating as far back as 1994 remain unresolved.
The No Child Left Behind Act seeks to hinge the federal education funding going into states and territories on results, linking those dollars to specific goals while rewarding success and sanctioning failure. Michael said the territory can expect an additional $2 million in U.S. education funding this year, $500,000 of it designated to establish scholastic assessment tests.
She said the compliance agreement focuses on program planning, design and evaluation; financial management; property management and procurement; and human capital. She said the agreement will help set the foundation for fulfilling the No Child Left Behind requirements in three years.
Preparing, training and recruiting high-quality teachers and principals is a major component of the act, and one that will have a significant impact on the territory, Michael said.
Of the 160 paraprofessionals employed by the Education Department, only 16 are registered as having college credits, she said. The new law requires that such employees have at least two years of college, hold an associates of arts degree, or pass an assessment test.
Also, Michael said, more than 40 percent of V.I. public school teachers are teaching outside their area of specialization, and more than half do not meet Board of Education certification requirements.
She said a new Education task force will help bring those teachers into compliance with standards and that the department has stepped up efforts to recruit new teachers from the University of the Virgin Islands and on the mainland.
Meantime, there were published reports on Tuesday of several new teachers complaining that they have yet to receive a Notice of Personnel Action, or NOPA, much less a paycheck. Education officials responding to the complaints said the teachers may have failed to submit required documentation.
The No Child Left Behind Act also deals with improving the academic achievement of the disadvantaged through assessment testing and setting up of report cards for each school, district and state or territory, with the assessments to be available to parents and other stakeholders.
"I am concerned with how we are going to meet the mandates of this law in three, four or even five years," Baptiste said. "I am concerned that we can't even supply kids with basic resources like textbooks." On standardized tests, he added, "How can we expect them to do better?"
On St. Croix, most of the textbooks for this school year have arrived, but the district science coordinator, Rosa White, said elementary school science books have not been replaced since 1989 because of funding constraints. The St. Thomas-St. John District is still awaiting the arrival of new schoolbooks for this year, the senators were told.
Michael said efforts toward regaining accreditation for three of the territory's four public high schools are progressing and that deadlines agreed to with the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, the territory's accrediting institution, have been met.
Middle States withdrew the accreditation of Central, Charlotte Amalie and Ivanna Eudora Kean High Schools last year, citing high teacher and student absenteeism, a lack of substitute teachers and site-management problems. St. Croix's Educational Complex has never been accredited, but the territory is now seeking accreditation for that school as well as the three others.
Michael also said that all of the $32 million in federal education grants received for Fiscal Year 2001 has been expended or obligated.
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