GIFF JOHNSON
Award winning public school Principal Baldwin Robert is taking up a new challenge: overseeing a multi-school improvement program for elementary and middle schools in Majuro and Ebeye.
After extended stints as principal of Delap and Rita elementary schools, he is now the Project Implementation Unit Director for the Improving the Quality of Basic Education (IQBE) Project at the Public School System. The new school improvement program is focused on literacy and numeracy.
It grew out of an Asian Development Bank-supported pilot project in Majuro, Kosrae and Pohnpei public elementary schools in 2014-2015. The pilot program showed significant improvement in English and math levels for third grade students over a two-year period. That pilot project used what is known as the “Early Grade Learning Assessment” tool that helps teachers identify specific areas of weakness limiting math and English improvements. So impressive were the results from the initial project that ADB is focusing $6 million over six years for RMI public schools using methods developed in the pilot project. “In his new capacity, Baldwin oversees project implementation in the primary schools (early and middle grades) in all Majuro and Kwajalein schools with support getting out to the outer island schools as well,” said PSS Commissioner Kanchi Hosia.
Robert was honored by the Interior Department last year for his stellar performance at RES. The school is preparing for a visit by a Western Association of Schools and Colleges accreditation team later this school year. RES Vice Principal Rodriques Nakamura, Jr. has been promoted to take Robert’s position at the school.
Read more about this in the February 23, 2018 edition of the Marshall Islands Journal.