Puerto Rico Statistics Institute participates in the hearing of the Natural Resources Committee of the United States House of Representatives

Washington, DC — June 21, 2024. The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute (Institute) participated in the hearing of the Subcommittee on Indigenous and Insular Affairs of the Committee on Natural Resources of the United States House of Representatives. During the hearing, entitled Examining the findings of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to address data breaches and improve data collection in the territories, the importance of having high-quality statistics for effective democratic governance and the appropriate allocation of government resources was emphasized.

The representative of the Institute at these hearings, Mr. Jacobo Orenstein Cardona, said that the Institute supports the recent GAO report, which recommends “that the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) ensure that your Chief Statistician develops a coordinated approach at the government level so that federal statistical agencies, in consultation with U.S. territories and other stakeholders, examine the costs, benefits and feasibility of including territories in statistical products and, as appropriate, identify ways to address any data gaps.”

During his presentation, Orenstein-Cardona, who is also the Institute's executive assistant, emphasized that “high-quality statistics are fundamental to a functional democracy because they provide a factual basis for making informed decisions. In a democratic society, the ability of citizens to make educated decisions about their governance and policies is paramount.”

Among other issues, Orenstein-Cardona emphasized that “high-quality statistics help in the allocation of government resources, since they indicate where more investment is needed, whether in education, health, infrastructure or other areas. They also promote a culture of responsibility, where public officials are responsible for their decisions and the results obtained.”

Orenstein-Cardona concluded his presentation by mentioning that, “through collaboration with federal and local governments, the Institute can serve as an intermediary and contribute significantly to the inclusion of Puerto Rico in federal statistical products. This will allow for comparability with other jurisdictions in the United States and will improve the reliability of statistics for the benefit of the entire population of Puerto Rico.”

The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute is an autonomous governmental entity responsible for coordinating the Government's statistical production service to ensure that the data collection and statistics systems, on which public policies are based, are complete, reliable, and have quick and universal access.

For more information you can visit the website: www.estadisticas.pr or write to preguntas@estadisticas.pr. They can also follow social networks through Facebook (@estadisticas .pr), X (@EstadisticasPR), LinkedIn (Institute of Statistics of Puerto Rico) and Instagram (@institutodeestadisticas) accounts.

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Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases Map & Statistics by Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering

(Map and statistics on global cases of Coronavirus COVID-19)

Note: This link, its data and its content is a tool for informational purposes and such content has not been evaluated by the Puerto Rico Statistics Institute; the content does not necessarily represent the opinion or approval of the Board of Directors, the Executive Director, the employees or any affiliate or partner of the Puerto Rico Statistics Institute. The information has been produced by an entity external to the Institute.

Access this map and its contents through the following link: https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

Learn more about the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at JHU at: https://systems.jhu.edu/

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PRESS RELEASE

OFFICE OF THE ACTING EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Statistical Yearbook of the Education System 2015-2016 has been published

Study reflects decrease in the prevalence of bullying at school among girls

The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute (Institute) published the statistical profile of Puerto Rico's education system for the academic year 2015-2016. The report includes data and information on all levels of education (pre-primary, primary, secondary, post-secondary, and university), both for the public and private sectors.

For the segment that groups the pre-primary, primary and secondary levels, the study highlights that in the public system the number of schools decreased from 1,386 to 1,332; students decreased from 410,950 to 379,818; teachers increased from 31.186 to 31,993 and the student-to-teacher ratio decreased from 13.2 to 11.9. 51.1% of the students were male, and the number of students in special education decreased from 129,086 to 123,376. While for the private system the number of schools decreased from 853 to 795 and the number of students decreased from 144,034 to 142,235; the number of teachers decreased from 11,645 to 11,536. 50.7% of the students were male, the number of students in special education increased from 15,828 to 16,462, and the student-to-teacher ratio increased from 12.2 to 12.3.

The new Measurement and Evaluation for Academic Transformation tests, better known as the META, began to be implemented in the public sector in the academic year 2015-2016; these revealed that 45% and 51% of all students in the public sector were proficient in English and Spanish subjects, respectively, while in mathematics only 33% were proficient. Regarding the results of the Academic Achievement Tests, known as Learn Aid and taken by students from the private sector, they revealed that between 62% and 67% of students in all grades, in the private system, were proficient in the subjects of Spanish, English, non-verbal reasoning and mathematics.

Regarding the average scores obtained in the University Assessment and Admission Tests, tests known as the College Board, the results showed that, in the public and private sectors, the subject with the highest score was English, with 443 and 552, respectively. It should be noted that, for all subjects, including verbal and mathematical reasoning, students in the private sector scored higher compared to the public sector.

This statistical profile also revealed that the results of the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, related to bullying, demonstrate a decrease in the prevalence of Bullying towards girls in public schools from 13.4% (2013) to 10.5% (2015).

“Achieving a statistical profile of the entire educational system in Puerto Rico, including data from both the public and private systems, requires multiple sources of information with methodologies and publication dates that vary widely from each other. It is for these reasons, among others, that this type of product is usually referred to two or three years prior to the current year. But despite this, this Statistical Yearbook is the only product in Puerto Rico that presents a standardized reference framework that contrasts with previous years and provides projections for the future, as far as education statistics are concerned,” explained Dr. Orville M. Disdier, Acting Executive Director of the Institute and lead author of the report.

The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute is an autonomous governmental entity responsible for coordinating the Government's statistical production service to ensure that the data collection and statistics systems, on which public policies are based, are complete, reliable, and have quick and universal access.

For more information or to access the statistical profile of Puerto Rico's education system for the academic year 2015-2016, you can visit the website: Publications or through the social networks of Facebook (@estadisticas .pr), Twitter (@EstadisticasPR) and LinkedIn (Institute of Statistics of Puerto Rico).

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Press Contact:

Idia Martínez

787-603-3200 imartinez@upfrontpr.net

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