By Jeannette Rivera-Lyles
The Orlando Sentinel
(MCT)
ORLANDO, Fla. - Students in Puerto Rico scored well below the national average in a standardized math test regarded as the ultimate report card in skills by the U.S. Department of Education.
It was the worst showing of any state or territory in the U.S.
But Puerto Rican officials are disregarding the test, administered to fourth and eighth graders, as culturally biased. They argue that the low scores are not a reflection of the island's education system but rather of a poorly designed test.
Nevertheless, officials with DOE's National Assessment of Educational Progress said there is reason for concern.
"The results are disappointing," said Luis Ramos, a member of the NAEP governing board. "It indicates that children in Puerto Rico are well behind."
Puerto Rico's fourth-grade students scored an average of 183. The average overall score for their counterparts in the United States was 237. In Florida it was 239.
Eighth graders in Puerto Rico fared even worse. They scored an average 218, or 60 points less than the U.S. average of 278. Florida's score was 274, slightly below the national average.
The test was administered in 2005 but the results were made public Thursday. It was offered in Spanish to 3,000 students in 100 public schools.
Under the President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act, all states and U.S. territories must take the national assessment test. The goal is to create a national historic record of student achievement.
Although the NAEP has been testing students for over 30 years, participation was voluntary and not all states agreed to have their students tested.
Rafael Feliciano, president of the Puerto Rico Teacher's Federation, said the test was culturally irrelevant to students in Puerto Rico.
"We think these types of standardized tests are a monumental fraud," Feliciano said. "What it pretends to measure do not correspond with the coursework we teach in Puerto Rico.
"Another problem is that they are designed with an American Anglo-Saxon in mind and they (the tests) reflect the way they structure sentences and their way of thinking."
Feliciano added that, contrary to the practice in many states, teachers in Puerto Rico do not teach to these tests. Furthermore, Feliciano said, there is a culture of resistance from teachers and students in Puerto Rico against these type of examination.
"Often, by the time teachers have finished giving the instructions, some students have completed the tests," Feliciano said.
Rafael Aragunde, Puerto Rico's secretary of education, was equally dismissive, according to island newspapers. Aragunde, in an interview with Puerto Rico's El Nuevo Dia, said the test had not been properly translated nor adapted to the island's cultural context.
Aragunde could not be reached Thursday.
Ramos said the test had been translated and adapted by a team that included Puerto Rican professionals and translation experts.
"Here's the deal: this is the gold standard of testing," he said. "We hope that local officials will look at the data, consider what the strengths and the weaknesses of their students are, and adjust accordingly. We are not going to tell them whether to change their curriculum or increase the classroom hours. That's up to them."
But Evelyn Rivera, an Orlando Puerto Rican education activist, said "something just doesn't add up."
NASA, she said, travels every year to Puerto Rico to recruit engineers.
"Our college enrollment is among the highest in the nation. How does a student that doesn't know math makes it to college and become an engineer?" Rivera said.
Statistics gathered by the Puerto Rico Department of Education show that 56 percent of high-school graduates enroll in college. That percentage is much higher than two thirds of all states, according to a Brookings Institution study released in 2006.
Puerto Rico's school system, plagued by a corruption scandal in 2000 and frequent budget deficits, has been under strain for many years.
It reached the breaking point in 2006 during the government's financial crisis.
Of the 100,000 public employees thrown out of work by the crisis, about 42,000 were teachers. The government shutdown, which lasted about two weeks, was resolved after the archbishop of San Juan intervened to bring warring state politicians together.
Before the crisis, school districts were taking annual recruiting trips to the island to fill their own growing need for teachers. But when the financial crisis hit, recruiters became even more aggressive, and teachers in Puerto Rico were listening.
In 2006, the starting pay of a teacher in Orange County, Fla., was $33,547 compared with $25,000-$27,000 on the island commonwealth.
Like many of the 200,000 Puerto Ricans who live in Central Florida, they were seeking better job opportunities and, according to one study by the University of Puerto Rico, a better education for their children.
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© 2007, The Orlando Sentinel (Fla.).
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Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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