Tag Archives: Dan Domenech Blog

A Comparison Between Public & Private Schools on the International Seminar

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This year’s AASA International Seminar took our group of superintendents to Ecuador. This was not our first journey to South America and we found education in Ecuador to be very similar to what we have seen in Costa Rica, Panama, Peru and Chile.

AASA President Chris Gaines and Executive Director Dan Domenech with children from the Milenio School in Guano, Ecuador.

Like their neighbors, Ecuador’s public schools serve primarily the poor while the middle class and up tend to send their children to private schools. We visited two such schools, the American International School in Quito and the Vigotsky School in Riobamba.

The International school is truly a model of outstanding education. Catering to the children of American diplomats and those that can afford the $18,000 per-year tuition, the school offers programs to infants through high school. We were very impressed by the college-like campus and the quality of the teachers and administrators.

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Doing the Best with What You Have

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(L-to-R) AASA Executive Director Dan Domenech, Principal Louis Rojas and AASA President Alton Frailey.

(L-to-R) AASA Executive Director Dan Domenech, Principal Louis Rojas and AASA President Alton Frailey.

Costa Rica – Louis Rojas is the principal of the San Rafael School, a small facility serving 114 students. Louis reports directly to a district supervisor that is similar to the district superintendent in the U.S.

Similar to the other schools we have visited, San Rafael educates preschoolers ages 4-5, kindergarten for 6-year-olds and the primary education grades 1-6. From there, students will attend “college,” the equivalent of high school for our students.

Uniforms are required in all schools as to eliminate economic differences. Their “college” is a six-year program where the first three years focus on general education while the last three require students to focus on either academic or technical tracks. They will graduate with a “bachelor’s” degree that grants them access to the public and private universities in the country.

Similar to the U.S., poverty is also a major factor. Forty-two percent of preschool children live in homes where parents have less than six years of schooling and more than 60 percent live in poverty. All of the schools we visited were lacking the resources that the principals regarded as necessary to meet the needs of the students.

Nevertheless, there is an overwhelming commitment to educate all children supported by administrators and teachers who do the best they can with what they have.

Dan is blogging throughout the AASA International Seminar, which is taking place in Costa Rica.

A Visit to the Alegre School

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AASA Executive Director, Dan Domenech, with Principal Gretta Mendez at the Cerro Alegre school.

AASA Executive Director, Dan Domenech, with Principal Gretta Mendez at the Cerro Alegre school.

La Fortuna, Costa Rica – Gretta Mendez was assigned to become the principal teacher of the one-room Alegre (Happy Hill) School three years ago. Unless you know where you are going, you would never find it. First of all, it’s not a school building. It’s a small Catholic Church in the mountains of Chachagua. The local priest allows Gretta to use the church as a school. There is an empty lot next to the church that the government purchased to build a school but that seems to be years away.

Most of the children who attend Cerro Alegre come from Nicaraguan families that are in Costa Rica illegally. There is an existing school that the children could attend but it’s so far from their homes that most of them would not go to school at all. While visiting Cerro Alegre the children regaled their AASA visitors with native dances and songs and then invited their guests to do the Hokey Pokey.

Typical of Costa Rican schools, the children are divided into morning and afternoon sessions each lasting about four hours. Gretta teaches both sessions.

The school is very much in need of resources and the AASA guests were eager to help out with donations and promises to send pencils, notebooks and furniture.

It’s a tough assignment and Gretta confesses that many a day she considers leaving Cerro Alegre to go teach in a conventional school, but then she looks at the faces of her children and she knows she will never abandon them. She knows that they would never travel the distance it would take to go to the school in town. She knows that many of the undocumented parents would not risk sending their kids to the regular school.

So Gretta stays and makes the most of it with the contributions she receives, the borrowed space from the local priest and the most beautiful smiles from the children she loves and teaches.

Dan is blogging throughout the AASA International Seminar, which is taking place in Costa Rica.

AASA Leadership Visits Costa Rica

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AASA President Alton Frailey with students in Alajuela, Costa Rica.

Alajuela, Costa Rica – In 1869, Costa Rica made education both free and mandatory for all its citizens. Lore has it that the country was experiencing economic hard times and could not afford to maintain both an army and a public education system. They chose education and today Costa Rica is one of the few countries in the world without a standing army. They even boast of having more teachers than police officers.

We visited the Carrizal elementary school in the mountain town of Alajuela. The school of 600 accommodates pre-school through grade six as well as special education students who attend one of two five hour shifts, a morning and afternoon session. Teachers are only allowed to teach one shift.

Based on achievement, the school is level 4, with level 5 being the highest performing schools. The school year runs 200 days from mid-February to mid-December. Class size averages about 32 students per class.

Instruction is very traditional with students in desks facing the blackboard in the front of the room where the teacher delivers the lesson. Even so, Costa Rica boasts a 95 percent literacy rate among residents age 15 and older.

Alajuela is a coffee bean growing region surrounded by dense foliage and beautiful streams. It typifies the tranquility that Costa Rica is so famous for.

The children are happy to see us and look forward to practicing their mandatory English language skills with us. To a resounding cheer, I tell them that they are doing so well that I might take them all back to the U.S. with me.