The University of Puerto Rico in Aguadilla (UPRAg) was established in 1972 and is one of the eleven campuses of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR). Each campus is headed by a Chancellor who presides over the Academic Senate, the Administrative Board, and faculty meetings. The Chancellor of UPR-Aguadilla, who has the maximum academic and administrative authority, is nominated by the President of the UPR System, in consultation with the faculty, the administrative personnel, and UPRAg students, and is appointed by the Governing Board, in accordance with Puerto Rico’s Public Law 170 (August 12, 1988). The Chancellor that holds the maximum academic and administrative authority of the UPRAg is Dr. Sonia Rivera, who was appointed Chancellor on August 1, 2020. Dr. Rivera served as the Dean of Academic Affairs from 2010-2013 and then again from 2017-2020, until she was appointed Chancellor. The University of Puerto Rico in Aguadilla (UPRAg) is in the city of Aguadilla along the northwest coast of Puerto Rico.
The Deanship of Academic Affairs is in charge of overseeing planning, delivering, and operating coherent academic programs. It has ten (10) academic department chairs: Business Administration, Technology and Applied Sciences, Education, English, Humanities, Mathematics, Natural Sciences, Office Administration and Information Technology, Social Sciences and Spanish. Also, coordinate special academic initiatives and services (e.g., Dean’s Office, Appraisal and Accreditation, Library, Continuing Education and Professional Studies, Registrar’s Office, Honors Program, Counseling and Psychological Services, and the Distance Education Division) and oversee the accreditation processes.
The Education and Physical Education Department is the unit, and the Academic Department Chair is the head of the (EPP). The Educator Preparation Programs (EPP) currently prepares teacher candidates at the initial level to obtain a Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education and a Bachelor of Arts in Education with Concentration in English with Multimedia Technology K-12. This last bachelor’s degree began in August 2023 to be offer online as well.
The Education and Physical Education Department responsibility is shared with one clinical experience coordinator for the Educator Preparation Program (EPP) with participation of the unit’s faculty and faculty from other academic departments that participate in the preparation of teacher candidates (e.g. Spanish, English, Mathematics, Social Sciences and Biology). Responsibilities of EPP director include strong collaboration with accreditation coordinator, learning assessment coordinator, clinical practice coordinator, and tenured faculty. Other tasks are coordination of admission and enrollment, retention, candidate advisor, and graduation of teacher candidates; recruitment, retention, supervision and evaluation of faculty and staff; academic programming for the unit; overseeing program delivery, assessment and evaluation; planning and overseeing the daily operations of the unit.
The EPP has eight (8) highly qualified professors: 63% percent have their doctoral degree and 37% have a master’s degree. There are three (3) professors actively participating in the clinical supervision of candidates. Currently we have five (5) adjunct faculty. Non-Teaching personnel that support the EPP are one (1) administrative secretary and one (1) student participating in the Work Study Program.
The Education and Physical Education Department have several committees, these are Program Review, Curriculum, Readmission, Reclassification, and Transfer, Library, Assessment of Student Learning, Departmental Personnel, Department Accreditation (CAEP), University Association of Future Educators (AUFE), Academic Senate, Institutional Faculty, Advisors Institutional Academic Probation, Institutional Research, Institutional Recruitment and Promotion. In addition, the Academic Department Chair, the Learning Assessment Coordinator, and Accreditation Coordinators has a continuing collaboration with the Planning Office and Studies Institutional, better known as OPEI Office ascribed to the Chancellor’s Office in order to get accurate and valid data for the program effectiveness. The Aguadilla EPP has an Advisory Board composed of the school principal, teaching mentors, active candidates, and alumni.
In UPR-Aguadilla 100% teacher candidates approved Puerto Rico’s Teacher Certification exams (PCMAS in Spanish) with a preliminary 90% summary pass rate in 2023. In 2022, 86% teacher candidates approved Puerto Rico’s Teacher Certification exams (PCMAS in Spanish) with a preliminary 86% summary pass rate.