by Krystal Paco
Guam - Preparing all students for life may be the Department of Education's mission statement, but according to Governor Eddie Calvo's communications director Troy Torres, it should be re-evaluated as Guam students aren't making the grades evident by high dropout rates, low test scores, and the number of college freshmen in remedial classes. Torres, who heads the Educational Learning Task Force's Reform Action Committee, says it takes more than just receiving a diploma to succeed in life.
"So the question is, are they prepared for life? That's the first thing we're going to look at the second thing we're going to look at it is what is the present condition of students, what is the present condition of the 18-22 year olds, who the governor mentioned in his State of the Island Address. Who graduated from high school in the last four years?" said Torres.
The Reform Action Committee met Monday afternoon and includes Senator Aline Yamashita, Guam Education Board members Barry Mead and Rosie Tainatongo, and Vincente Benavente Middle School principal Dexter Fullo. He said, "The next thing we're going to do is find out what are the barriers that hinder student achievement that have led to this present condition and then what are the solutions what can we do to change things and make the reforms that quite frankly principals and teachers have been advocating for a very long time," he said.
Reforms that, according to Task Force chairperson Vince Leon Guerrero not only requires financing, but time. "If our students are this far behind the U.S. students and much farther behind our neighbors in Asia, we really can't say that the current number of hours a day, a week, a year is adequate to catch up. We're just going to lag farther and farther behind. The dialogue has already started and that's why we wanted to call it the Educational Learning Task Force and not just a repair and renovations task force," he said.
The task force is set to meet as a whole on February 23 at 3:30pm.
