A History of the Northern Marianas Educational System

About the Book

This study first provides a comprehensive history of formal education in the Northern Mariana Islands (which voted in 1987 to become a Commonwealth of the United States) since the time of European contact. Included is a short introduction to the geography, migration patterns, and linguistic history of the main cultural groups inhabiting these islands. The data and analysis presented here achieve significant detail for the period beginning with the U.S. occupation of the islands at the end of World War II and continuing through the time of the study itself, 1991. A detailed history of institutional education in the Northern Marianas is developed for the Spanish, German, Japanese, and U.S. colonial regimes, each of which has left a significant imprint. Certain important characteristics of the contemporary educational environment may be clearly traced to these colonial sources. This historical survey is then employed to assess the recently and as yet incompletely implemented program of teacher training and certification in the Commonwealth, the Territorial Teacher Training and Assistance Program, or TTTAP, a U.S. federal program in operation since 1980. Particular attention is given to bicultural and bilingual issues of teacher education. Based on the historical study, and on the examination of TTTAP, strong recommendations are made for a careful re-examination of the educational system’s goals, and specifically for the system-wide implementation of testing and other systems of accountability to determine whether these goals are being achieved.

About the Author

Roman de los Santos is originally from both U.S. Commonwealth, Saipan (CNMI), and Guam. The author received his Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) degree in curriculum and intrsuction in Multicultural Teacher and Childhood Education from the University of New Mexico in December, 1991. He specialized in Multicultural and Bilingual Education, Childhood Education, Speech Communication, and Student Teaching Supervision and Adult Educatoin. In addition, he received his Educational Specialist in school administration and supervision K-12 (Ed.s.) His first publication: The History of the Northern Marianas Educational System: Implication for Teacher Education and his second book: The English-Navajo Children’s Picture Dictionary, both available through Xlibris Corporation, Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Phone 623-930-9048/ 623-806-5815.