Email: info@flamboyanfoundation.org

Washington, DC office:
1730 Massachusetts Avenue, NW | Washington, DC 20036
Tel: (202) 315-2410

Puerto Rico office:
P.O. Box 16699 | San Juan, PR 00908-6699
Tel: (787) 977-5522

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Driving Education Reform in Puerto Rico

Flamboyan Foundation recognizes that we cannot improve any public school system alone. This is particularly true in Puerto Rico, which is the 3rd largest school district in the United States, after New York City and Los Angeles Public Schools. Puerto Rico has 1,520 public schools and almost 500,000 students.

Consider the following facts:

  1. 84% of our schools are not meeting Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP).
  2. In 2009, 25% of Puerto Rico’s 8th grade math students scored proficient, which is 26 percentage points below the US national average of 51%.  
  3. 11th grade PPAA (the Puerto Rico public school standardized achievement test) proficiency levels in 2009 were 2% in math, 36% in science, 35% in Spanish and 44% in English.

These are daunting facts, and we believe significant improvement can and must happen.  The solutions are not easy and will take concentrated effort and work.  Teachers, principals, parents, administrators, government officials, foundations and nonprofits need to come together with a common agenda focused on student learning.

At the core, education reform is about building the capacity of teachers to reach their students and prepare them to be competitive in the global economy.  All strategies aimed at school reform must focus on identifying, training, supporting, and developing teachers so they have the skills, knowledge, and attitudes needed to help all of our students succeed in college and career. 

Flamboyan is working with others to understand the scope of the problem in Puerto Rico and to begin identifying potential solutions.  We are humbled by the work that lies ahead yet emphatically optimistic that if we work together, progress will be made for our students.

Our Processour process

Understanding the Local Environment
Landscape Assessment & Selection
Developing a Deep Understanding
Proposed Outcomes & Strategy
Selecting & Working with Partners
Evaluation & Results

Understanding the Local Environment

We began our work in Puerto Rico in 2007 by having a series of conversations with other foundations investing in education, and by learning more about community-based organizations working in the field.

We were specifically interested in identifying local nonprofits that were implementing strategies to improve student achievement and that could serve as a vehicle to effect large-scale transformation of our public school system.

We learned there are relatively few nonprofit organizations directly improving academic outcomes in Puerto Rico’s K-12 public schools. There were several organizations doing exceptional work with at-risk youth and in alternative schools, yet all of these efforts existed outside the school “system.”

While we were learning about current efforts, the Puerto Rico Department of Education provided surface-level education data that described the dire state of our public schools, declining student achievement, increasing dropout rates, and persistent inefficient administration of public funds. We wondered: “How were these issues to be addressed?” and “Who will drive system-wide change on behalf of students?”

When we sought a deeper analysis of the situation and more specific data to drive decisions, we found unreliable data and seriously ill-informed dialogues about key challenges facing our schools.

Landscape Assessment & Selection

Concerned about the state of our public schools, we called together a group of friends and began to educate ourselves and ask questions.

A diverse group of people participated in the conversations over a period of several months. Together, we read research; exchanged opinions; and invited school directors, superintendents, students, parents, ex-secretaries of education and others to tell us what they thought was working and not working in schools. Over time, a core group emerged interested in making a difference and effecting major reform. We called ourselves Friends of Public Education (“Friends”).

Friends looked to other states and districts for guidance on how best to approach education reform. But, the group felt its first step was to gain a deeper understanding and gather more comprehensive data about Puerto Rico’s public school system and the scope of the problem.

Developing a Deep Understanding

Friends of Public Education (“Friends”) defined a set of issues that needed in-depth research prior to driving transformational change in Puerto Rico. Flamboyan Foundation also saw an immediate opportunity to help Friends carry out these research projects and build its own knowledge.

Flamboyan Foundation and Friends developed two requests for proposals, interviewed, and selected research teams to conduct studies answering the following questions:

  1. What are the characteristics of a sample of Puerto Rico’s middle and high schools achieving above average results on standardized tests, and what can be learned from these schools and replicated among other schools? 
  2. Is Puerto Rico adhering to the mandates of federal law “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB), and to what extent are local Law 149 (“Ley Orgánica”) and other regulations aligned or unaligned with NCLB and other federal mandates? What needs to happen in order for Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rico Department of Education to effectively implement local and federal laws to improve the quality of our public schools system? Ultimately, what would it mean for Puerto Rico to assume accountability for education progress and academic achievement?

During our discussions, the importance of school leadership surfaced regularly. Consequently, Flamboyan commissioned a third study to learn more about the approximately 1,400 school directors leading Puerto Rico’s public schools, who they were, how they perceived their role and responsibilities and the main challenges they faced as leaders of their schools.

Related Information

Proposed Outcomes & Strategy

Our outcomes and strategies for Driving Education Reform are as follows:

Outcomes Strategies
Reliable information about our public education system and its schools is readily available.

    
  • Gather, synthesize, and share key statistics on K-12 education in Puerto Rico (PR).
  • Gather and share information about nonprofits, private companies and consultants involved in school reform.
  • Commission a series of research studies to inform Flamboyan’s strategic direction in PR.
All local stakeholders have access to education research studies and use the information to make informed decisions.
  • Publish and disseminate the executive summaries and full reports of Flamboyan’s research studies.
  • Meet with key government officials to share the final findings and recommendations of the studies.
  • Organize large-group presentations to share the findings of the studies, inspire dialogue and collect feedback.
A constructive and collaborative relationship exists between Flamboyan and other groups leading efforts to improve our public school system.
  • Partner with foundations, nonprofits, concerned citizens and government officials to find ways of using the data to make informed decisions.
  • Create materials that serve to develop a more cohesive view of the different players involved in school reform initiatives in Puerto Rico.
  • Actively participate in activities organized by other nonprofit groups, the Puerto Rico Department of Education and other government agencies.

Selecting & Working with Partners

To achieve our outcomes, Flamboyan identified and approached a set of partners with the knowledge, experience and drive necessary to carry out each strategy and asked them to collaborate with us. It is our pleasure and privilege to work with the following organizations:

Outcomes Flamboyan Foundation partnered in the following ways:
Reliable information about our public education system and its schools is readily available.

    
All local stakeholders have access to education research studies and use the information to make informed decisions.
  • Sharing the three research studies by mailing copies to over 700 people, including local and US government officials, school staff, nonprofit leaders, academics and foundations.
  • Meeting with the Director and staff of the “Instituto de Capacitación, Administración y Apoyo a las Escuelas” at the Puerto Rico Department of Education to discuss the study Who is Leading Public Schools in Puerto Rico? and identify a group of approximately 250 directors with whom to share the results and findings and elicit feedback.
  • Meeting with the Puerto Rico Secretary of Education to discuss Who is Leading Public Schools in Puerto Rico? and Being Accountable: The Challenge to Improve Public Schools in Puerto Rico to present the investigation, results and recommendations that stemmed from each study.
  • Meeting with the Secretary of State, the Education Advisor to the Governor, the DEPR Director of Federal Affairs, the DEPR Director of Oversight Committee, an Ex-Secretary of DEPR and the Interim Secretary of Education at the time (2010) to share a draft of the executive summary for Being Accountable, elicit their comments and feedback, and establish a working relationship.
  • Inviting a group of advocacy groups, nonprofits and foundations engaged in education transformation efforts in Puerto Rico, including Educ-acción, CAPEDCOM, Agenda Ciudadana, CECE, IPEDCo and others to a presentation and discussion of Being Accountable.
A constructive and collaborative relationship exists between Flamboyan and other groups leading efforts to improve our public school system.
  • Presenting Being Accountable at conference organized by The Regional Educational Lab for Northeast and Islands (REL-NEI) to a group of approximately 200 local superintendents and other Department of Education regional leaders.
  • Preparing a Snap Shot of the K-12 Education Community in Puerto Rico to map key players and their organizations. Flamboyan also prepared a summary of groups engaged in efforts to improve the public schools system and how each is approaching this work. The purpose of the summary is to support our on-going conversations, view the large picture of school reform efforts in PR and help us understand how we can compliment one another.
  • Sapientis, a nonprofit organization supported by Flamboyan Foundation, to disseminate the studies. Sapientis trained their core group of advocates on how to understand and present findings in Who is Leading Public Schools in Puerto Rico?. The group has met with senators and legislators to start raising awareness about the importance of school directors in effecting education reform.
Related Information

Evaluation & Results

As a result of publishing the series of reports on education, we continue to call for and participate in conversations to drive education reform in Puerto Rico. We are constantly refining our outcomes in this area and considering a more specific focus for leveraging change by building capacity among school directors and improving policy so that school directors become instructional leaders. Would you like to receive periodic updates on our progress in this area via email?