Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL) President and CEO Tom Barlow recently announced the opening of PREL’s new Guam Service Center located at Oceanview Middle School.
Pamela Legdesog has been appointed PREL’s Guam Service Center Liaison. Ms. Legdesog, who has been with PREL for 15 years, comes to Guam after 11 years serving as liaison to PREL’s Yap Service Center. Prior to that she worked in PREL’s Honolulu office.
In her role as PREL Service Center Liaison to the Guam Public School System (GPSS), Ms. Legdesog will assist with communications and coordination of PREL work-related events. She will provide technical assistance and training in the areas of school improvement and literacy development, including activities such as conducting workshops on developing reading comprehension for English language learners (ELLs). She will also provide assistance to schools in implementing their school improvement plans, assessment, and integrated lesson planning.
As Guam will host the 25th annual Pacific Educational Conference (PEC)—expecting over 1000 participants next July—Ms. Legdesog will act as PREL’s PEC 2008 Liaison, sharing expertise gained through years of PEC experience.
Gene Dydasco joins the PREL team and the Guam Service Center from the GPSS, where he has been an Acting Assistant Principal at the high school level. He provided oversight for the Special Populations program, which includes special education and English as a second language (ESL), and developed the school improvement plan. A native Guamanian with a Chamorro background, Mr. Dydasco is deeply committed to education for Pacific students.
Mr. Dydasco’s work at the Guam Service Center will focus primarily on the U.S. Department of Education-funded Enhanced Assessment Grant (EAG), which will lead to the design, development, and dissemination of new K–12 English language proficiency (ELP) assessments that are appropriate to Pacific Islander students in American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Guam, and Hawai‘i.
Both Ms. Legdesog and Mr. Dydasco can be reached at PREL’s new Guam Service Center at (671) 565-2961 ext. 5773 or by email at guamsc@prel.org.
PREL is an independent, nonprofit 501 (c)(3) corporation that serves the educational community in the U.S.-affiliated Pacific, the continental United States, and countries throughout the world. PREL bridges the gap between research, theory, and practice in education and works collaboratively with schools and school systems to provide services that range from curriculum development to assessment and evaluation. In addition, PREL administers the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Pacific, 1 of 10 Regional Educational Laboratories funded through the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education. With a commitment to ensuring that all students have an equal opportunity to develop a strong academic foundation, regardless of circumstances or geographic location, PREL has service centers in the U.S.-affiliated Pacific islands, including American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM: Chuuk, Kosrae, Pohnpei, and Yap), Guam, Hawai‘i, the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), and the Republic of Palau.
For additional information about this media release or PREL and its work, please contact Javier Elizondo, Director of Communications, by telephone at (808) 441-1300 or by email at elizondoj@prel.org, or visit our website at www.prel.org.
(Posted Wednesday, May 21, 2008)