PSS to distribute ‘facts and figures’ report

In continuing efforts to be transparent, the Public School System will be distributing school year reports in a form of a pamphlet containing a summary of data and information on each school in CNMI, which the U.S. Department of Education is requiring PSS to comply with.

PSS associate commissioner for instructions Rita Sablan distributed a sample of the pamphlets during the 2nd monthly Board of Education meeting held Thursday.

“In the past we used to provide an overall report,” said Sablan, “But now we’re looking at providing them a school-by-school report plus the state.”

She added that PSS has been distributing the information but this is the first time they will have it in a graphical format since PSS now has the mechanism to do it.

The facts and figures report will be distributed in schools for parents, students, and personnel.

Sablan said that if the parents would like to find out how many students are at each grade level or how students are performing in school, they would easily determine this through the report.

This report will contain data such as summary of students enrolled by grade and gender, number of school personnel by category, grade level and gender, school budget allocation for each fiscal year, and statistics on school facilities—number of classrooms, rest rooms, and cafeteria.

The report will also show graphical reports of the students’ academic achievement report in the previous school year, including math aggregate scores and the PSS overall reading and writing scores.

“We are finalizing reports first to make them available,” said Sablan. Her department is currently working with the education management team, which prepares the reports.

Sablan said that PSS had to train some staff on how to encode the data, requiring knowledge of the latest software to lay out and enter data.

“They have to learn technical skills so they can manipulate the data provided by each school,” she said.

PSS is also training the school support staff on how to put the data together to incorporate the report in a new format.

Sablan hopes to finally distribute the pamphlets once her department finalizes the report on Feb. 10.

This report will also be available at each school’s website for online reference.

Commissioner of Education Rita H. Inos suggested during the board meeting that Sablan take a look at the project more carefully and incorporate changes that will make it more understandable to the community and, once she approves the report, Sablan will begin distributing these to schools.