The government of Puerto Rico developed a plan to recover from the destruction caused by Hurricanes Irma and Maria, build resilience to withstand future disasters, and restore the struggling economy. The Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center (HSOAC), operated by RAND Corporation under contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, worked with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to assist with the development of the plan. Acting in support of FEMA's Education sector, HSOAC analyzed data sources to conduct an assessment of the damage and recovery needs, and engaged with stakeholders to identify recovery courses of action, costs, and possible funding mechanisms. Education system reforms initiated prior to the hurricanes and poststorm legislation set the strategy for the recovery actions. This report details prestorm conditions, assesses the damage and recovery needs, and describes the courses of action represented in the recovery plan for the Education sector. The analyses, coupled with discussions with local education stakeholders and subject-matter experts, informed the development of 13 courses of action to support Puerto Rico's recovery plan and efforts to transform the education system. The courses of action cover four major themes related to Education sector recovery: rebuilding, repairing, and upgrading infrastructure; strengthening and supporting the government's K-12 system reform; expanding and improving out-of-school and preschool learning opportunities; and increasing access to vocational, technical, and career education and strengthening school-to-work transitions.

In September 2017, Hurricane María, a category 5 storm, made landfall in Puerto Rico, resulting in incalculable damages and thousands of deaths across the country. This atmospheric system affected the lives of all residents of the island and deeply exacerbated an economic crisis that had already taken hold of the U.S. territory and resulted in a deep exodus of the island's population. This migration pattern, added to the catastrophic nature of the natural disasters, have brought forward consequences that have been widespread in the island and its education system is now facing deep changes that include the closing of schools, relocation of both students and teachers to other schools, and a re-evaluation of the school curriculum. This dissertation illustrates a interpretive case-study of experiences of teachers from Puerto Rico who were directly affected by both Hurricane Irma and Hurricane María, emphasizing the toll these events took not only in their personal lives but also in the professional lives as part of their own professional learning communities, this through the examination of interviews taken two years after the events. This interview data was analyzed through teacher leadership theories and complexity theory as means to provide a rich description of the challenges faced by teachers in the crisis and their ability to serve as leaders in their teaching community. Teachers' experiences post-hurricane showed three significant areas in which they were affected: (1) school changes guided by crises-led school reform, (2) a lack of teacher support systems, and (3) a loss of teacher professional communities following the crisis. All in all, this dissertation shows the experiences of teachers during the months following Hurricane María were heavily influenced by confusion, a lack of communication from leadership, increasing demands, unequal response, and a sense of loss not only anchored in material aspects but also a loss of their sense of community within the schools.

With its 155 mile-per-hour sustained windspeeds, the near-Category 5 Hurricane Maria brought catastrophic devastation and destruction as it diagonally crossed the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico from the southeast to the northwest on September 20, 2017. The official death toll estimate of 2,975 lost lives means this record storm became one of the most devasting hurricanes not only for Puerto Rico but for the U.S. Many of these deaths, as well as the prolonged human suffering, were attributed to what was described as inadequate disaster response and slow restoration of basic services (including running water, electricity, and the provision and distribution of food and medicine), and not to the direct impact of the hurricane itself. At the same time, Hurricane Maria made landfall when Puerto Rico had been confronting a severe economic crisis surging for over a decade. This crisis, referred to as La Crisis Boricua, was characterized by a significant loss of industry and jobs, a deteriorating infrastructure, record net outmigration, a shrinking and rapidly aging population, rising healthcare under-coverage, a bankrupt government, and federal legislation restricting fiscal policy decisions made by elected officials on the island. Thus, Hurricane Maria exacerbated the effects of La Crisis Boricua on the socioeconomic, health, and demographic outcomes affecting Puerto Ricans on the island and U.S. mainland. Bringing together scholars from a wide variety of disciplines (including economics, sociology, demography, health, psychology, disaster research, political science, education, the arts, and others), this volume represents one of the first interdisciplinary sets of studies dedicated to analyzing the effects of Hurricane Maria on island and stateside Puerto Ricans. Specific topics cover Hurricane Maria’s impact on labor market outcomes, including wages and employment by industry; health implications, including mental health; changes in artistic expression; civic engagement; and disaster response and recovery. A common thread through many of the chapters was the destruction of Puerto Rico’s electrical grid and the prolonged restoration of electricity and other essential services that resulted in the loss of thousands of lives.

Over the past ten years Puerto Rico has been experiencing a severe economic crisis that was worsened when Hurricane Maria made landfall on September 20, 2017. Maria hit Puerto Rico as a category 4 storm, devastating the whole island and its 3.4 million residents. Many students were left with minimal educational choices after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico. Research on Latino/a students shows that they are met with unique experiences and challenges as they pursue higher education. The current study uses qualitative data to investigate what are the unique challenges and needs of displaced students from Puerto Rico? and what role does social capital play in confronting and navigating the challenges and needs associated with their transition to a new institutional setting? This study proposes to research the issues that many displaced Puerto Rican college student's face and add to the growing body of knowledge. It is important to understand how these recently displaced students will be affected by leaving behind, economic capital and cultural capital that they had built up in their communities on the island. Participation in the study included 9 participants from a large southeastern university that provided in-state tuition to displaced students for semi-structured qualitative interviews. Results revealed that family support was the main source of support for many of the students. Mentorship support was key in their educational success because the more support and encouragement from faculty led to a better transition. Support from peers was positively associated with a better transition and feeling of acceptance. Higher campus resources were positively associated with a better transition.

The primary purpose of this study was to determine and describe the resilience of physical education (PE) teachers post-Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. A secondary purpose was to determine and describe how PE teachers were influenced by their culture in coping with stress associated with teaching post-Hurricane Maria. This descriptive-qualitative study was positioned within the Socio-Ecological Model (SEM) theoretical framework. The participants were nine PE teachers from public schools in the United States Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The sampling design was purposeful using criterion sampling. The primary data sources were semi-structured, face-to-face interviews, a demographic questionnaire, field notes generated from on-site observations, and collection of visual artifacts (photographs and video clips) of the built environment from local communities and schools. The data were analyzed descriptively (e.g., responses to demographic questionnaire), as well as qualitatively and analytically (interview data, field notes, artifacts) using a thematic line-by-line analysis method to produce themes. From the dataanalyses, three major recurrent and interrelated themes emerged, which were: (a) Fear, Uncertainty, and Anger, which exposed the emotions and feelings expressed by the PE teachers in connection to Hurricane Maria; (b) Coping, which exposed how the PE teachers found ways in their own lives and their communities to deal with stresses associated to Hurricane Maria and how they managed or adapted to life’s circumstances; and (c) Overwhelmed, which disclosed the difficulties that PE teachers faced in their homes, schools, and communities.

The News Media in Puerto Rico offers a synopsis as well as a critical analysis of the Island’s news media system, with emphasis on the political and economic factors that most influence how the media operate. The authors also document the impact of Hurricane Maria on the media structures and the changing media landscape given the political, economic and colonial strictures. Building on interviews with news media professionals, the book further presents detailed insights about journalism and journalism education in these times of crises. The final chapters include theoretical frameworks and methodological guidelines for the analysis of other colonial, post-colonial and neo-colonial media systems, with research recommendations valuable for future studies of the Island’s media as well as for cross-national comparisons. This book will be an essential read for students and scholars interested in learning not only about the Puerto Rican and Latin American mass media, but also the media systems of other colonial/neo-colonial countries.

A workforce development system that supports Puerto Rico's economic development requires a K through postsecondary education system that emphasizes individuals' career pathways and aligns training with the evolving labor market and business needs.

National Critical Functions (NCFs) are government and private-sector functions so vital that their disruption would debilitate security, the economy, public health, or safety. Researchers developed a risk management framework to assess and manage the risk that climate change poses to the NCFs and use the framework to assess 27 priority NCFs. This report details the risk assessment portions of the framework.

Advances in Drinking Water Purification: Small Systems and Emerging Issues captures the knowledge and impact on the performance of various types of water purification technologies and identities the need for further development with a view to carry forward the SDG global targets of achieving safe and affordable drinking water. The book bridges the knowledge gap between various types of treatability options which is essential for selection of suitable treatment systems and augmentation in the desirable levels of specific contaminants. It focuses on providing the scope of selecting location specific technology options by presenting multiple approaches for treatment of most crucial toxic contaminants/pathogens. In addition, it provides insights into the effect of nature of impurities and selection of treatment options on the global quality of drinking water, comprising its possible impacts on the efficiency of the techniques used and thus on the safety of drinking water. This information is indispensable in identifying the appropriate technology depending on the socioeconomic conditions to address the problem of decontamination in drinking water. - Discusses point-of-use devices for the removal of organic and inorganic contaminants from drinking water - Provides a multipronged approach to encourage, recognize, protect and commercialize available options for water purification - Includes case studies for field testing/pilot trials - Provides an in-depth analysis on the efficacy of small systems with an emphasis on the sustainability, socio-technical aspects and emerging issues