Hardly Business As Usual

Over the years, elected school boards have been an on-again, off-again feature of Guam education, seen as a way to move the school system out of the political realm. The board's mandate, as indicated by its name, is to make policy to be implemented on a day-to-day basis by the superintendent, who is hired following statutory guidelines under a three-year contract. Eight months after taking office the board hired Juan Flores. At the time, Flores was teaching at the University of Portland in Oregon while working on his doctorate.

Juan Flores, Guam’s public schools superintendent. [Photo: Frank Whitman]

A Chamorro raised in Guam, Flores had spent most of his adult life as an educator in the U.S. mainland except for four years with the Guam Department of Education in the mid-1990s. Though he enjoyed his work in Portland, Flores had been convinced to apply for the job by two longtime friends: Guam Supreme Court Justice Frances Tydingco-Gatewood and Gov. Felix Camacho. "We had always talked about when it was going to be our time to do something for this island," Flores says. "They said it was our time and that I had to respond to the call. They made me feel responsible for coming back and doing what I could because they felt that things needed to get done."

Today, Guam's territorial education system remains in crisis. In February, the board voted not to renew, Flores's three-year contract, which expires in August. In response, some parents began circulating petitions to remove board members-an ongoing effort at press time.

The action was misunderstood, board members say. While some board members wanted to terminate Flores's contract at the time, the motion that passed was to complete the contract, but keep their options open; and Flores was welcome to reapply. "It was positively stated and I intended it to be that way," says Rosa Palomo, the board member who made the motion.

The latest controversy is but the latest for Guam's public education system. For decades, Guam's largest government department-4,000 employees, 31,000 students, 37 schools-has been a battleground for political turf wars and home to an unwieldy bureaucracy. Instructionally, it suffered from the academic philosophical mushiness and lack of direction that has afflicted American public education since the 1970s. A lack of resources caused primarily by the severe economic downturn of the past decade has resulted in personnel shortages, poorly maintained facilities and an inadequate supply of instructional materials. The result has been consistently low academic performance by public school students as a group, manifested by low scores on standardized tests among other indicators.

Coming into his new job, Flores's goal was to turn the system around. "It was in a state of inertia," he says. "For years we hadn't moved in any direction.

"There are practices that I think keep holding us back, practices that cost us money, practices that defer decisions to people who really have no business making decisions, especially about what's going to go on in the classroom."

Meanwhile, as part of President George Bush's federal "No Child Left Behind" initiative, the Department of Education was continuing work begun in 2001 to implement Direct Instruction, a highly-structured, comprehensive reading program-its $8 million annual cost borne by the federal government-to address the schools' most critical problem.

The program is controversial for several reasons. Teachers feel their creativity and professional judgment is stifled by the scripted lessons and tight structure of the program. It relies heavily on repetition and group responses not in vogue with many educators.

Direct Instruction was implemented as Flores was beginning his first year as superintendent. Though he was not originally a strong supporter of the program, he changed his opinion based on "the hard data that I saw." In addition parents, students and teachers provided important feedback, much of it positive.

As the superintendent and the board sought to define their roles, an often contentious relationship developed. "We are elected by a constituency and constituencies have problems," says Jose Cruz, board vice chairman. Board members were approached by community members about day-to-day problems with the schools. Board members also felt that they were not being given all the information that they needed.

Flores acknowledges that he could have put more effort into developing a better relationship with the board. "Most of that was a function of time," he says. "I had to make choices and I chose to do the work rather than invest in the relationship. I never did anything that I intentionally thought was going to be seen as contentious with the board." In January, the board voted to reduce the amount of time spent on direct instruction in the classroom over the objections of Flores and others. During a March visit, U.S. Department of Education officials said that the program should be reinstated in its entirety or the federal funding would be threatened. Indications at press time are that the board will reinstate the original schedule, though concerns about the program remain.

Though the process has not been smooth, there are signs that changes are being accepted. "We're keeping kids in school and it doesn't matter if the water is turned off for a day," said board member Palomo. Previously, it had been common for missed school days to be forgotten.