Schools To Be Graded Individually, Teachers Needed, Senate is Told

U.S. Virgin Islands public education experts presented a deep dive on the state of the territory’s schools on Monday before the V.I. Senate — detailing critical teacher shortages, infrastructure needs, long-term and short-term plans, and an urgent need for funding in various programs.

When the prepared testimony ended, more than two hours later, Sen. Marise C. James, chairwoman of the Committee on Education and Workforce Development, said her head was spinning.

“I feel like I was on a rollercoaster of highs, lows, ghuts, hills, mountains, valleys, all of that in your presentation,” James said.

For two years, the Education Department has worked to create territory-wide standard operating procedures, digitize records, and identify ways to streamline bureaucracy to the benefit of educators, administrators, parents, and students, said Commissioner Dionne Wells-Hedrington. By the end of the 2023-2024 school year, all those systems should be codified, she said.

One of the changes came from a 2021-2022 task force that recommended schools be individually held to greater accountability, she said.

“Each school has developed targeted goals for their campuses, and that will be used to determine their success. This year is the first in many years that we will be evaluating schools individually based on their academic performance,” Wells-Hedrington said.