Gov. Lolo Matalasi Moliga has told a gathering of the nation’s governors and top education officials that American Samoa’s education system “is not adequately preparing” local students for college and universities.

Lolo’s statement was made Monday during day-one of the 2013 Governors Education Symposium, co-hosted by the James B. Hunt Jr. Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy and the National Governors Association under this year’s theme “Advance America— Commitment to Quality Education.

The first session of the symposium is called, “Connecting the Many Moving Parts to Achieve College and Career Readiness” and it looks at the importance of preparing students for postsecondary education as an economic development and jobs strategy, according to the event’s briefing papers.

It was during this session that Lolo shared with fellow governors the challenges faced by American Samoa’s educational system “which begins with fragmentation of our educational efforts along with lack of articulation from ECE, Elementary, High School, all the way to the community college level,” according to a media statement from Lolo’s staff traveling with him.

Lolo also shared with the audience that American Samoa's education system “is not adequately preparing our students to achieve college and career readiness” and pointed out that student performance statistics provided by the U.S. Department of Education based on the 2000 Census for the 2010-2011 School Year, shows that 96% of local students performed below basic , with only 4% at the basic level.

For 4th Grade math, the percentage of Students Proficient or Advanced according to American Samoa's Standard Based Assessment in 2010 was 41%. For  8th Grade Math only 41% were again deemed proficient, based on the same 2010 Assessment, the statement says.

“However on the national level for 8th Grade Math, 94% of our students performed below basic,” it says, adding that these figures, provided by USDOE’s National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data, supported Lolo’s statement of concern over American Samoa's quality of education.

Monday's second session was titled, "Building Coalitions to Accelerate Momentum and Results". According to Lolo’s staff, this session points to the great disconnect among all educational stakeholders in American Samoa ”thus raising the absolute need for our entire community to come together to determine the future direction of education and understanding clearly the responsibilities and duties of each educational stakeholder in our community.”

“One thing that was made clear was the fact that the Governors have the most powerful roles in building the political will to accelerate and sustain implementation of college and career ready reforms,” said the governor’s executive assistant Iulogologo Joseph Pereira, who is traveling with Lolo’s delegation.

“It is believed that by forming strong coalitions among K-12, higher education, the business community, and other stakeholders, governors can achieve a ‘collective impact’,” he said.

Among the speakers and presenters on Monday was U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who was asked by Lolo “for help, given the educational dilemma currently faced by American Samoa,” said Iulogologo adding that Duncan gave assurance that his office will provide every assistance that might be needed.

At the start of yesterday’s symposium, the governors had the opportunity to share their recent successes and challenges and learn more about what’s going on in their fellow governors’ states, according to the event’s briefing.

This was followed by the third session, which dealt with “Developing and Supporting Effective Teachers and Leaders”. This session highlighted best practices from innovative states regarding teacher and school leader standards, preparation, certification, evaluation, and support. Discussion also included challenges that occur as states implement these reforms, especially during the transition to more rigorous standards, and how governors can address those challenges.

The fourth and last session of the symposium is titled “Reallocating Resources to Improve Achievement and Attainment” which “highlights policy levers governors can use to drive greater productivity and creativity in education.”