Puerto Rico Department of Education's Use of ARP ESSER Funds to Measure Student Academic Progress (ED-OIG/I25GA0233)

Summary

Final Inspection Report ED-OIG/I25GA0233 of the U.S. Department of Education Office of Inspector General, dated March 17, 2026, titled Puerto Rico Department of Education's Use of ARP ESSER Funds to Measure Student Academic Progress, with a transmittal letter to Secretary of Education Eliezer Ramos Parés signed /s/ Ben C. Sanders. The report states that Puerto Rico DOE used $3.9 million in ARP ESSER funds to pay for student academic proficiency interim assessments that a contractor did not administer timely (10- and 20-week assessments) or at all (30- and 40-week assessments). It states that Puerto Rico DOE did not ensure that teachers used the results as intended, and that the OIG made four recommendations. Puerto Rico DOE partially agreed with the finding and did not state whether it agreed with the recommendations.

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U.S. Department of Education
Office of Inspector General
Puerto Rico Department of
Education’s Use of ARP ESSER
Funds to Measure Student
Academic Progress
March 17, 2026
ED-OIG/ I25GA0233

INSPECTION REPORT

NOTICE
Statements that managerial practices need improvements, as well as other conclusions
and recommendations in this report, represent the opinions of the Office of Inspector
General. The appropriate Department of Education officials will determine what
corrective actions should be taken.
In accordance with Freedom of Information Act (Title 5, United States Code,
Section 552), reports that the Office of Inspector General issues are available to
members of the press and general public to the extent information they contain is not
subject to exemptions in the Act.

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL

Audit Services
400 MARYLAND AVENUE, S.W., WASHINGTON, DC 20202-1510
Promoting the efficiency, effectiveness, and integrity of the Department’s programs and operations.

March 17, 2026
Eliezer Ramos Parés
Secretary of Education
Puerto Rico Department of Education
P.O. Box 190759
San Juan, P.R. 00919-0759
Dear Secretary Ramos Parés:
Enclosed is our final report, “Puerto Rico Department of Education’s Use of ARP ESSER Funds to
Measure Student Academic Progress,” Control Number ED-OIG/I25GA0233. This report incorporates the
comments you provided in response to the draft report. The U.S. Department of Education’s policy is to
expedite inspection resolution by timely acting on findings and recommendations. Therefore, if you
have any additional comments or information that you believe may have a bearing on the resolution of
this inspection, you should send them directly to the following Department of Education official, who
will consider them before taking final Departmental action on this inspection:
Kirsten Baesler
Assistant Secretary
Office of Elementary and Secondary Education
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Ave., SW
Washington, D.C. 20202
We appreciate your cooperation during this inspection. If you have any questions, please contact Juan E.
Santiago-Díaz, Assistant Director, Elementary and Secondary Education Oversight Team, at
Juan.Santiago@ed.gov or (202) 987-0370; or me at Ben.Sanders@ed.gov or (916) 213-7630.
Sincerely,
/s/

Ben C. Sanders
Director, Elementary and Secondary Education Oversight Team
Enclosure

Final Inspection Report
ED-OIG/I25GA0233
U.S. Department of Education, Office of Inspector General
Results in Brief
Puerto Rico Department of Education’s Use of ARP ESSER Funds to
Measure Student Academic Progress
Why Did the OIG Perform
This Inspection?
Congress passed three coronavirus
relief acts within a 1-year period that
provided more than $275 billion for an
Education Stabilization Fund to
prevent, prepare for, and respond to
the coronavirus, including
$189.5 billion for the Elementary and
Secondary School Emergency Relief
Fund (ESSER). The American Rescue
Plan Act (ARP) provided $122 billion for
ESSER to help State educational
agencies (SEA) and local educational
agencies (LEA) safely reopen and
sustain the safe operation of schools
and address the impact of the
coronavirus pandemic on students.
Ensuring that ARP ESSER funds are
used effectively by grantees and
achieve the intended impact is critical
to help address the needs of students
and educators. The Puerto Rico
Department of Education (Puerto Rico
DOE) was allocated about $3 billion in
ARP ESSER funds to support 860
schools serving about 261,000
students.
The objective of our inspection was to
determine whether Puerto Rico DOE
ensured that (1) services contracted
for and paid with ARP ESSER funds to
measure students’ academic progress
were provided as required and
(2) results were used as intended to
modify individual students’
instructional plans and help prevent
academic failure.
What Did the OIG Find?
We found that Puerto Rico DOE did not ensure that the services contracted for and paid
with ARP ESSER funds to measure students’ academic progress were provided in
accordance with the executed contract. It also did not ensure that teachers used the
results of the contractor-administered student academic proficiency assessments as
intended to modify individual students’ instructional plans and help prevent academic
failure. As a result, Puerto Rico DOE used $3.9 million in ARP ESSER funds to pay for
student academic proficiency interim assessments that a contractor did not administer
timely (10- and 20-week assessments) or at all (30- and 40-week assessments), and that
did not achieve the intended purposes of helping teachers develop differentiated work
plans based on each student’s academic lag, diagnose students’ immediate learning
needs, and implement targeted re-teaching strategies effectively.
What Is the Impact?
Because Puerto Rico DOE did not ensure that the contractor performed all required
services before paying the contractor and that teachers received and used the results of
the student academic proficiency interim assessments as intended under the contract,
$3.9 million in ARP ESSER program funds were wasted. Those funds could have been used
to benefit students and mitigate learning loss caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
What Are the Next Steps?
We made four recommendations to ensure that the $3.9 million in ARP ESSER funds are
not wasted, future contract work is adequately supervised by Puerto Rico DOE, and
contractors are not paid for services they did not perform or that were outside the scope
of the contract.
We provided a draft of this report to Puerto Rico DOE for comment. Puerto Rico DOE
partially agreed with our finding and did not state whether it agreed with our
recommendations, but did describe the corrective actions it plans to take to address three
of the four recommendations.
We summarize Puerto Rico DOE’s comments and provide our response at the end of the
finding. We also provide the full text of Puerto Rico DOE’s comments at the end of the
report (Puerto Rico DOE’s Comments). Because the attachment (spreadsheet) provided
with Puerto Rico DOE’s comments contained sensitive information that could not be
reasonably redacted, we did not include it at the end of the report.

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Table of Contents
Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 1
Finding. Puerto Rico DOE Used $3.9 Million in ARP ESSER Funds for Student Academic
Proficiency Interim Assessments That Were Not Administered Timely or At All and Did
Not Achieve Intended Purposes ......................................................................................... 3
Appendix A. Scope and Methodology............................................................................... 13
Appendix B. Acronyms and Abbreviations ........................................................................ 16
Puerto Rico DOE’s Comments ........................................................................................... 17

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Introduction
Background
On March 13, 2020, the President declared a national emergency due to the coronavirus
pandemic. In response, Congress passed three coronavirus relief acts1 within a 1-year
period that provided more than $275 billion for an Education Stabilization Fund to
prevent, prepare for, and respond to the coronavirus, including $189.5 billion for the
Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER). The American Rescue
Plan Act (ARP), the third coronavirus relief act passed, provided $122 billion for ESSER to
help State educational agencies (SEA) and local educational agencies (LEA) safely reopen
and sustain the safe operation of schools and address the impact of the coronavirus
pandemic on students. Per section 2001(e)(2)(N)(i) of ARP, ESSER funds can be used to
address learning loss among students by administering and using high-quality
assessments to accurately assess students’ academic progress and assist educators in
meeting students’ academic needs.
On March 24, 2021, the U.S. Department of Education (Department) awarded about
$81 billion in ARP ESSER funds to SEAs, about two-thirds of each SEA’s total allocation.
To receive the remaining funds, each SEA was required to submit a plan to the
Department’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education for approval that described
how the SEA would use ARP ESSER funds to safely reopen schools, support sustained
access to in-person instruction, and address the academic, social, emotional, and mental
health needs of students. By December 2021, the Department had awarded the
remaining $41 billion in ARP ESSER funds to SEAs. Effective use of ARP ESSER funds by
grantees and contractors who perform services on their behalf is critical to helping
ensure that the needs of students and educators are adequately addressed and
intended impacts are achieved.
Puerto Rico Department of Education
The Puerto Rico Department of Education (Puerto Rico DOE), which is both an SEA and
LEA for purposes of administering Federal financial assistance programs, is responsible
for planning and administering all public elementary and secondary education and some
postsecondary education in Puerto Rico. Its Secretary of Education, appointed by the

1 The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, enacted on March 27, 2020 (Public
Law 116-136); Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, enacted on December
27, 2020 (Public Law 116-260); and American Rescue Plan Act, enacted on March 11, 2021 (Public
Law 117-2).

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Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico with the advice and consent of the
Puerto Rico Senate, heads the agency.
Puerto Rico DOE was allocated about $3 billion in ARP ESSER funds to support
860 schools serving about 261,000 students. As of November 25, 2025, it had drawn
down about $2.7 billion (90 percent) of its $3 billion ARP ESSER allocation.2 Puerto Rico
DOE used $3.9 million of its ARP ESSER funds to pay an educational technology services
firm (contractor) to design, administer, tabulate, and analyze the results of interim
assessments of Puerto Rico students’ academic proficiency in five core subjects during
school year 2023–2024. Puerto Rico DOE’s Office of Academic and Programmatic Affairs
was responsible for managing the $3.9 million professional services contract3 (contract)
and monitoring contractor performance. This contract was the focus of our review.

2 Puerto Rico DOE has until July 29, 2026, to draw down and use the remaining 10 percent of its ARP
ESSER funds.
3 The contract was executed on June 2, 2023.

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Finding. Puerto Rico DOE Used $3.9 Million in
ARP ESSER Funds for Student Academic
Proficiency Interim Assessments That Were
Not Administered Timely or At All and Did Not
Achieve Intended Purposes
We found that Puerto Rico DOE did not ensure that all services contracted for and paid
with ARP ESSER funds to measure students’ academic progress were provided by the
contractor. It also did not ensure that teachers used the results of student academic
proficiency assessments to modify students’ instructional plans and help prevent
academic failure. As a result, Puerto Rico DOE used $3.9 million in ARP ESSER funds to
pay for services that the contractor either did not perform or performed late, and that
did not achieve the intended purposes of helping teachers develop differentiated work
plans based on each student’s academic lag, diagnose students’ immediate learning
needs so they could be addressed promptly, and implement targeted re-teaching
strategies effectively. This wasteful4 spending meant that fewer funds were available for
other allowable activities that could have helped mitigate the learning loss caused by
the coronavirus pandemic.
In June 2023, Puerto Rico DOE awarded a $3.9 million contract5 to an educational
technology services firm to design, administer, tabulate, and analyze the results of
interim assessments of students’ academic proficiency in five subject areas during
school year 2023–2024 (August 16, 2023, through June 7, 2024). The contract required
that four assessments, covering five core subjects (English, Spanish, mathematics,

4 According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, waste occurs when individuals or
organizations expend government resources carelessly, extravagantly, or without adequate purpose. It
can result in substantial losses to the Federal government, as well as diverting the availability of funds
for other purposes.
5 The original contract, dated June 2, 2023, was amended twice. In December 2023, the contract was
amended to correct a technical error by revising the contract end date from December 31, 2023, to
June 30, 2024. In June 2024, the contract was amended to include updated terms regarding the
remedies available to Puerto Rico DOE when the contractor is not meeting its contractual obligations
and extend the contract end date to September 30, 2024, to provide the contractor with an additional
3 months to complete its work. The amended contracts did not change or alter the scope of work.

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science, and social studies), be administered6 to approximately 260,000 students in
grades 1 through 12. The assessments were to be administered every 10 weeks at the
10-, 20-, 30-, and 40-week interval marks, beginning in October 2023 and ending in
March 2024.
Puerto Rico DOE Did Not Ensure All Contracted Services Were
Provided
Puerto Rico DOE did not have adequate contract oversight and monitoring processes in
place to ensure that, prior to making payments against the contract, the contractor had
performed the agreed-upon services and otherwise met applicable contractual
requirements. Puerto Rico DOE’s contract monitoring activities primarily consisted of
reviewing and approving the contractor’s invoices and discussing with the contractor (via
meetings and email) key issues and challenges facing the contractor, including errors in
the assessments’ content and difficulties in administering the assessments. However, the
project manager (whom Puerto Rico DOE’s Undersecretary of Academic and
Programmatic Affairs told us lacked the knowledge and experience to effectively manage
the contract and monitor contractor performance) did not verify that the contractor
took appropriate corrective action to address those issues and challenges, and failed to
enforce contractual obligations (for example, by withholding some or all payments to the
contractor when it did not administer assessments timely or at all).
Article 16.C. of Puerto Rico DOE’s “Guide for the Award and Contracting of Professional
Services Paid for with Federal Funds Administered by the Auxiliary Secretariat of Federal
Affairs” required that the contractor be supervised to ensure compliance with contract
terms and conditions and the specifications in their proposals, and that an authorized
Puerto Rico DOE representative be designated to review, certify, and approve the
contractor’s invoices. The guide did not require that the designated representative be
experienced or meet specific professional qualifications, and did not include
standardized procedures, protocols, checklists, or instructions to help guide Puerto Rico
DOE employees when conducting contract monitoring activities, including invoice
verification.
Title 2, Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.) section 200.318(b), requires that recipients
and subrecipients of Federal funds maintain oversight to ensure that contractors
perform in accordance with the terms, conditions, and specifications of their contracts.
Accordingly, at a minimum, Puerto Rico DOE should have had procedures in place to

6 The contract did not specify what “administering the assessments” entailed; however, in practice, the
contractor designed the assessments, provided teachers and students at each school with access to the
contractor’s system, and tabulated and analyzed the assessment results.

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follow up with the contractor if it was not administering or sharing the results of interim
assessments timely or at all. When contract oversight and monitoring is lacking or not
performed, a contractor may be paid for services not rendered or that differ from the
services included in the contract. In this case, the contractor was paid the entire
$3.9 million contract amount even though it did not administer or share the results of
the 10- and 20-week assessments timely and did not administer the 30- and 40-week
assessments at all. When Puerto Rico DOE learned that the contractor was not meeting
contractual obligations, it should have taken appropriate steps to hold the contractor
accountable, in part, by withholding some or all payments to the contractor.7
Contractor Did Not Administer or Share the Results of the
10- and 20-Week Interim Assessments Timely
The contract required that the 10- and 20-week interim assessments be administered in
October 2023 and December 2023, respectively, to provide teachers with sufficient time
to review the results of those assessments and implement appropriate and timely
actions to prevent student academic failure before school year 2023–2024 ended.
However, the contractor did not administer the 10- and 20-week interim assessments
until November 2023 (1 month late) and March 2024 (3 months late), respectively.
Puerto Rico DOE cited several challenges that contributed to the delays in the
contractor’s administration of the 10- and 20-week interim assessments. According to
the former project manager, challenges faced by the contractor included (1) limited
availability in the schools’ calendars to administer the interim assessments, (2) lack of
internet service or limited network broadband capacity at some schools, and (3) limited
number of school computers available for students to take the assessments.
Additionally, Puerto Rico DOE’s Undersecretary of Academic and Programmatic Affairs
cited challenges related to the system developed by the contractor to administer the
assessments. The system-related challenges included (1) difficulties teachers and
students had when attempting to access the contractor’s system or synchronize data,
(2) incorrect information being reported in the contractor’s system (for example, system
showing students as having completed the assessments without having taken them),
and (3) information that should have been included in the contractor’s system but was
not (for example, students and groups not found in the contractor’s system database
despite teachers entering the information).

7 Article 8 of the contract states that if the contractor does not provide all specified services, Puerto Rico
DOE may issue a payment based on the percentage of services completed.

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The contract also required that the contractor make the 10- and 20-week assessment
results available in its system (for applicable Puerto Rico DOE staff to access) within
48 hours of administering the assessments (Article 3.14 of the contract) and provide the
files containing the 10- and 20-week assessment results to Puerto Rico DOE in
November 2023 and January 2024, respectively (Article 6, deliverables 12 and 18, of the
contract). However, there was no documentation or evidence to support that the
contractor made the 10- and 20-week assessment results available in its system within
48 hours of administering the assessments. Additionally, the contractor did not provide
the 10- and 20-week assessment results files to Puerto Rico DOE timely. It provided the
10-week assessment results file in January 2024, which was 2 months later than
stipulated in the contract and 2 months after the assessment was administered; and the
20-week assessment results file in June 2024, which was 5 months later than stipulated
in the contract and 3 months after the assessment was administered.
Contractor Did Not Administer the 30- and 40-Week Interim
Assessments
The contractor did not administer the 30- and 40-week interim assessments to the
nearly 260,000 students in grades 1 through 12 during school year 2023–2024, contrary
to the terms of the contract. Instead, it administered alternative assessments to a much
smaller number of students (5,585 students) after school year 2023–2024 had ended.
Puerto Rico DOE’s project manager told us that the contractor administered the
alternative assessments at the verbal request of the former Secretary of Education for
Puerto Rico. The alternative assessments included content from the 30- and 40-week
interim assessments that the contractor had already designed for the five core subject
areas. Although the alternative assessments included some content from the 30- and
40-week interim assessments, the contractor administered those assessments after the
school year had ended and to a significantly reduced number of students. Therefore, the
results from the alternative assessments were not available to inform and help teachers
implement appropriate and timely actions to address students’ academic lag before
school year 2023–2024 had ended, one of the primary objectives stipulated in the
contract. Per 2 C.F.R. section 200.459(b)(1), the nature and scope of the service
rendered in relation to the service required are relevant factors in determining whether
costs for professional services are allowable.
Alternative Assessments Were Not Incorporated into the Contract.
Puerto Rico DOE did not modify the contract to authorize the use of alternative
assessments. According to the project manager, the former Secretary of Education for
Puerto Rico verbally authorized the contractor to provide services outside the scope of
the contract without amending the written contract, in part, because Puerto Rico DOE
wanted to avoid the delays experienced with the 10- and 20-week interim assessments
and it felt pressure to use the ARP ESSER funds before they expired. Puerto Rico DOE’s

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Undersecretary of Academic and Programmatic Affairs told us that Puerto Rico DOE did
not believe the contract needed to be amended because the changes in scope did not
materially impact any contract provisions and the services provided outside the
contract’s scope (alternative assessments) cost the same as the 30- and 40-week interim
assessments (no change in cost).
Puerto Rico DOE should have amended the contract in writing to comply with applicable
requirements. Article 44 of the contract states that any service the contractor provides
without a valid, signed, and current contract or its amendment will not be paid for by
Puerto Rico DOE and the contractor will be responsible for its loss. Article 46 of the
contract requires that any amendment, change, or modification regarding the terms and
conditions of the contract be incorporated into the contract by a written amendment. It
further notes that, in accordance with the rules governing the contracting of
professional services, no payment will be made for services provided in violation of that
clause if any official who requests and accepts services from the other party in violation
of this provision does so without any legal authority.
Puerto Rico DOE Did Not Ensure That Teachers Received and
Used the Results of the Interim Assessments as Intended
Puerto Rico DOE did not ensure that teachers received and used the results of student
academic proficiency assessments to modify students’ instructional plans and help
prevent academic failure. The lack of oversight in this area occurred primarily because
Puerto Rico DOE did not have adequate oversight and monitoring processes in place to
ensure that all contracted services were being provided and intended purposes were
being achieved, and it assigned contract management and oversight responsibilities to a
project manager and unit that did not have the requisite knowledge and experience to
effectively perform those responsibilities.
Puerto Rico DOE’s Undersecretary of Academic and Programmatic Affairs told us that the
project manager assigned to oversee the interim assessment project lacked the
knowledge and experience to effectively manage the contract and monitor contractor
performance. The undersecretary further noted that Puerto Rico DOE’s Measurement
and Assessment Unit should have been tasked with managing the contract instead of the
Office of Academic and Programmatic Affairs because it had staff with the expertise
needed to effectively oversee that type of project. The Office of Academic and
Programmatic Affairs did not have staff with that same expertise. We also found that
school principals generally did not provide sufficient training to their teachers to ensure
that teachers understood how to access and use the results of the interim assessments
to identify students’ immediate learning needs and promptly address those needs,

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which we concluded also contributed to the intended purposes of the assessments and
contract not being achieved.8
Teachers’ Receipt of Interim Assessments Results
As noted earlier in this finding, the contractor was 2 to 3 months late providing the 10-
and 20-week assessment results files to Puerto Rico DOE. Puerto Rico DOE did not
provide us with any documentation or evidence showing that it followed up with the
contractor to expedite receipt of those files. Puerto Rico DOE provided us with
documentation showing that it shared the 10-week interim assessment results file with
teachers, but it did not provide documentation showing that it ever shared the 20-week
assessment results file with teachers.
Teachers’ Use of Interim Assessments Results
We interviewed 26 teachers from 7 regional education offices where the 10- and 20-
week interim assessments were administered, in part, to determine whether they used
the assessment results to modify students’ instructional plans, if needed.9 Teachers were
instructed to modify a student’s instructional plan if the student scored 69 percent or
lower on the assessment. Of the 26 teachers interviewed, 22 teachers (85 percent) told
us that they did not use or could not recall using the interim assessment results to
address their students’ instructional needs.10 Only four teachers (15 percent) told us that
they used interim assessment results to address their students’ instructional needs. We
could not verify if or how these four teachers addressed their students’ instructional
needs because they did not document that information in their weekly instructional
plans.

8 According to the contractor’s “Uniform Work Plan for Administering Interim Assessments for School
Year 2023–24” and Puerto Rico DOE’s project manager, school principals were primarily responsible for
training their teachers on how to access and use the interim assessment results to address students’
instructional needs.
9 We selected for interview a sample of 28 teachers from 7 regional education offices where the 10- and
20-week interim assessments were administered. We were unable to interview 2 (7 percent) of the
28 teachers in our sample because they were no longer working at the schools where the assessments
were administered and our attempts to contact them were unsuccessful.
10 Of the 22 teachers who did not use or could not recall using the interim assessment results,
17 teachers said they never received the assessment results, 3 teachers said they received but did not
use the assessment results, and 2 teachers could not recall whether they received the assessment
results.

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We asked Puerto Rico DOE for documentation showing the efforts it made to ensure that
teachers were using the results of the 10- and 20-week assessments to help achieve the
contract’s objectives. In response, it provided a memorandum that the former
Undersecretary of Academic and Programmatic Affairs issued to Puerto Rico DOE
leadership and teachers on January 30, 2024, notifying them that the 10-week
assessment results were available for teachers to use to reinforce their teaching and
help students master their skills in each subject area. This memorandum was issued
about 2 months after the 10-week interim assessments were administered. Puerto Rico
DOE did not provide us with any documentation showing the efforts it made to ensure
teachers were using the 20-week interim assessment results.
During our interviews with teachers, we also asked if and to what extent they received
training from school principals on how to access and use the interim assessment results
to address students’ instructional needs. Only 7 (27 percent) of the 26 teachers
interviewed stated that they received some training on how to access and use the
assessment results to address students’ instructional needs. The other 19 teachers
(73 percent) either told us that they did not receive any training (18 teachers) or could
not recall receiving training on how to access and use the assessment results (1 teacher).
Through our work, which included reviewing a summary of the in-person trainings
offered to Puerto Rico DOE employees, participant attendance sheets, and slides of the
training presentations, we determined the contractor provided sufficient training to
school principals and other Puerto Rico DOE employees on how teachers and others
could access interim assessment results from the contractor’s system, as required by the
contract. However, as we learned from our interviews with 26 teachers, school principals
did not always provide similar training to their teachers.
Based on the results of our interviews with teachers and the document (memorandum)
that Puerto Rico DOE provided to show the efforts it made to ensure that teachers were
using the results of the 10- and 20-week assessments, we concluded that Puerto Rico
DOE did not provide sufficient outreach or training to ensure that teachers were using
the interim assessment results as stipulated in the contract.
Intended Purposes of Assessments and Contract Not Achieved
The student academic proficiency assessments (10- and 20-week assessments and
alternative assessments) that the contractor administered to Puerto Rico students did
not achieve the intended purposes, as stipulated in the contract. As noted in the
contract, the purpose of administering interim assessments every 10 weeks was to
collect data on students´ performance and identify the academic areas needing
improvement, information that teachers could have used to promptly address students’
immediate needs and modify instructional plans to address students’ academic lag
before school year 2023–2024 ended. However, contrary to contractual requirements,

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the contractor did not administer interim assessments every 10 weeks per the
established schedule (the 10- and 20-week assessments were administered late, and the
30- and 40-week assessments were never administered), and the results of the
assessments that the contractor did administer were not always shared with or used by
teachers. The Undersecretary of Academic and Programmatic Affairs for Puerto Rico DOE
told us that when interim assessments are not administered timely and teachers do not
receive assessment results promptly, the assessments lose relevance because students
may not perform well due to the time that has passed and teachers may not be able to
take appropriate actions early enough to help prevent academic failure.
We concluded that Puerto Rico DOE’s use of $3.9 million in ARP ESSER funds for the 10-
and 20-week assessments and alternative assessments was wasteful because
contractually required services were performed late or not at all, and teachers did not
receive the student-level data they needed to timely assess students’ academic
proficiency in key subject areas and promptly implement appropriate corrective actions
before school year 2023–2024 ended. Those funds could have been used for other
allowable purposes, including activities designed to benefit students and mitigate
learning loss caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Recommendations
We recommend that the Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education
require Puerto Rico DOE to—
1. Return the $3.9 million charged to the ARP ESSER grant for the student
academic proficiency interim assessments or take other remedial actions as
appropriate, such as making accounting adjustments to other valid and
allowable obligations incurred during the ARP ESSER grant period of availability.
2. Develop and incorporate into its existing contract monitoring and oversight
policies and procedures, control activities, or protocols designed to ensure that
only qualified personnel are assigned to manage and oversee contracts and
those charged with that responsibility verify that the contractually required
services are rendered (for example, by reviewing documentation supporting the
completion of contract-related work) before paying the contractor.
3. Implement its contract amendment procedures, as designed, to ensure that all
future changes to the scope of contracted work are documented and approved
in writing.
4. Provide sufficient training to its employees, including teachers, who are
responsible for implementing initiatives and activities under contracts funded
with Federal education funds to help ensure that all contractual obligations and
objectives are met and Federal education funds are used as intended.

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Puerto Rico DOE’s Comments
Puerto Rico DOE partially agreed with the finding, noting that the costs billed for the
30- and 40-week assessments (totaling $1.4 million11) were not supportable,
reasonable, or allowable under applicable Federal requirements and contract
provisions, and should not have been paid. It disagreed that the entire $3.9 million
contract should be questioned and identified $2.5 million in deliverables (which include
the 10- and 20-week assessments) that it asserts the contractor completed in
accordance with the contract and therefore should receive payment for, while
acknowledging that some services were delayed. It also noted that the entirety of the
contract should not be questioned because the contract established that services would
be offered to an approximate number of students (260,000 students) and, in several
phases, the contractor administered assessments to more than 145,000 students and
performed other services. Puerto Rico DOE further noted that it benefited from the
student academic progress data that were collected through the assessments, while
adding that denying payment to the contractor due to administrative or procedural
circumstances and not the illegality of the services themselves could constitute unjust
enrichment.
Puerto Rico DOE did not state whether it agreed with the recommendations but
described the corrective actions it plans to take to address Recommendations 2, 3,
and 4. Those actions, in part, include reviewing Puerto Rico DOE’s existing contract
monitoring and oversight policies and procedures to ensure that only qualified
personnel are assigned to manage and oversee contracts and providing those
employees with targeted or refresher training covering contract oversight activities,
such as verifying that contractually-required services are rendered before paying the
contractor, documenting and approving amendments to a contract in writing, ensuring
that all program objectives are met and Federal education funds are well invested, and
adjusting contract invoices in cases where all services cannot be provided as planned.
OIG Response
We did not make any changes to the finding or recommendations based on Puerto Rico
DOE’s comments. We disagree with Puerto Rico DOE’s assertion that the 10- and
20-week assessments and related services (totaling $2.5 million) were completed in
accordance with the terms of the contract. We recognize that the contractor performed
some services, however, those services often did not meet contract requirements, and
the related deliverables (such as the 10- and 20-week assessment results) were not

11 This amount and the $2.5 million amount in the next sentence were included in the spreadsheet that
Puerto Rico DOE attached to its response.

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always provided to or used by teachers to identify students’ academic areas needing
improvement and promptly address students’ immediate needs. Additionally, those
services were only provided to a little more than half (145,058, or 56 percent) of the
260,000 students anticipated under the contract.
Regarding Puerto Rico DOE’s statement that it benefited from the student academic
proficiency data collected through the administered assessments, we note that Puerto
Rico DOE did not include in its response any information or documentation identifying
the benefits received or describing how the data were used to modify individual
students’ instructional plans and help prevent academic failure.
Regarding Puerto Rico DOE’s statement that denying payment to the contractor could
constitute unjust enrichment, we note that the contract’s termination clause provided
Puerto Rico DOE with the authority to terminate the contract at any time and for any
reason, including when it believed an immediate reduction of expenses was warranted.
Accordingly, Puerto Rico DOE could have chosen to terminate the contract when it
learned that services would not be provided in accordance with the contract. It also
could have chosen to pay the contractor for services rendered using other available
funds (non-ARP ESSER), where permissible.
Puerto Rico DOE’s proposed actions, if implemented as described, are responsive to
Recommendations 2, 3, and 4.

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Office of Inspector General
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13
Appendix A. Scope and Methodology
Our inspection covered a $3.9 million professional services contract (funded with ARP
ESSER dollars) that Puerto Rico DOE awarded on June 2, 2023, to an educational
technology services firm to design, administer, tabulate, and analyze the results of
interim assessments of students’ academic proficiency in five core subjects during
school year 2023–2024 (August 16, 2023, through June 7, 2024). To accomplish our
objective, we first gained an understanding of the following laws, regulations, and
guidance relevant to the ARP ESSER program and the administration of professional
services contracts:
•
Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, enacted on March 27, 2020
(Public Law 116-136);
•
ARP, enacted on March 11, 2021 (Public Law 117-2);
•
2 C.F.R. Part 200, Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and
Audit Requirements for Federal Awards;
•
Puerto Rico DOE’s approved ARP ESSER plan; and
•
Puerto Rico DOE’s “Guide for the Award and Contracting of Professional
Services Paid for with Federal Funds Administered by the Auxiliary Secretariat of
Federal Affairs.”
We then reviewed and evaluated the contract to determine whether the $3.9 million
that Puerto Rico DOE paid to the contractor was allowable, supported, and consistent
with the contract’s terms and conditions; and helped achieve the purpose of the ARP
ESSER program. We interviewed Puerto Rico DOE officials responsible for managing and
overseeing the contract and reviewed relevant documents and records, including the
Request for Proposal, contractor’s proposal, “System for Continuous Monitoring for
Academic Recovery” work plan12 that Puerto Rico DOE developed for administering
interim assessments every 10 weeks during the 2023–2024 school year, executed
contract and related contract amendments, billing invoices, and the contractor’s
progress reports.
Through interviews with teachers and reviews of relevant documents and records, we
gained an understanding of whether Puerto Rico DOE used the interim assessment
results as the contract intended; that is, by using the results to help teachers develop
differentiated work plans based on a student’s academic lag, diagnose a student’s

12 The work plan established the objectives and the intended purpose of the project, resources needed
(goods, services, or both), and how the project would be implemented.

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immediate learning needs and take prompt action to address those needs, and
implement targeted re-teaching strategies effectively. We interviewed 26 teachers to
determine whether they used the results of student academic proficiency interim
assessment results, and if they had received training from their school principals on how
to access the interim assessment results in the contractor’s system and use them to
address students’ instructional needs. We also reviewed relevant documents and
records, including a memorandum issued by a former Undersecretary of Academic and
Programmatic Affairs for Puerto Rico DOE on January 30, 2024, establishing “69 percent
or lower” as the score threshold for purposes of identifying students with instructional
needs requiring teacher intervention and adjustments to their weekly instructional
plans, and showing the outreach that Puerto Rico DOE made to teachers encouraging
and reminding them to use the 10- and 20-week assessment results.
Sampling Methodology
Puerto Rico DOE provided us with two spreadsheets listing the 42,182 teachers who
taught the 145,058 students who completed the 10- and 20-week assessments and
scored 69 percent or less on both assessments. From the population of 42,182 teachers,
we judgmentally selected 28 teachers to interview to determine whether they used the
interim assessment results to modify students’ instructional plans and help prevent
academic failure and whether they received training from their school principals on how
to access the interim assessment results in the contractor’s system and use them to
address students’ instructional needs. From each of the seven educational regions, we
judgmentally selected the top four teachers who had the most students scoring
69 percent or below on both the 10- and 20-week assessments (28 teachers total).13
Two teachers were no longer employed by Puerto Rico DOE at the time of our
interviews and therefore could not be interviewed. We conducted interviews with the
other 26 teachers, 9 in person and 17 by telephone. Because our sample was
judgmentally selected and not large enough to project the results with the precision
required by our policy, the results of our sample cannot be projected to the entire
population of teachers.
Use of Computer-Processed Data
We relied, in part, on computer-processed data from the contractor’s interim
assessment administration system to identify the population of teachers who could be
selected for an interview. Puerto Rico DOE provided us with two spreadsheets showing
the results of the interim assessments administered to students during school year

13 The contractor administered interim assessments to 140 students who were taught by these
28 teachers.

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15
2023–2024: one showing the results of the 10-week interim assessment and one
showing the results of the 20-week interim assessment. We used the data in those two
spreadsheets to identify the students who completed and scored 69 percent or lower on
both assessments and their respective teachers. To assess the reliability of that data, we
traced and compared selected student information (such as student identification
number, school code, and grade) in the spreadsheets to information in Puerto Rico
DOE’s student information system. We traced and compared selected information for a
statistically valid, random sample of 20 students.14 Based on the work performed, we
determined that the data in the two spreadsheets were sufficiently reliable for their
intended purposes.
We also relied, in part, on funding-related data in the Department’s grants management
system to identify Puerto Rico DOE’s ARP ESSER authorization, drawdown activity, and
remaining balance as of November 25, 2025. Because we considered the Department’s
grants management system to be the best and most reliable source for ARP ESSER
funding-related data, we did not assess the reliability of the data.
Compliance with Standards
We conducted our work in accordance with the Council of the Inspectors General on
Integrity and Efficiency’s “Quality Standards for Inspection and Evaluation.” Those
standards require that we plan and perform our work to obtain sufficient and
appropriate evidence to support our findings and provide a reasonable basis for our
conclusions. We believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our
conclusions.
We conducted our inspection at Puerto Rico DOE’s schools in the cities of Aibonito,
Bayamón, Dorado, Loiza, Morovis, and Santa Isabel, and our offices from March through
September 2025. We discussed the results of our work with Puerto Rico DOE officials on
September 2, 2025, and provided them with a draft of this report on January 14, 2026.

14 We selected 20 students from the population of 145,058 unique students who completed and scored
69 percent or lower on both (10- and 20-week) interim assessments. We designed our sample to allow
for acceptance or rejection of data for each student in the population at an 80 percent confidence level.
If the data were not reliable for 4 (20 percent) or more of the 20 students, then the data for the entire
population would be considered unreliable because the accuracy of the data did not meet the
80 percent confidence level.

U.S. Department of Education
Office of Inspector General
ED-OIG/I25GA0233
16
Appendix B. Acronyms and Abbreviations
ARP
American Rescue Plan Act
C.F.R.
Code of Federal Regulations
Contract
$3.9 million professional services contract, executed on
June 2, 2023, between Puerto Rico DOE and contractor
Department
U.S. Department of Education
ESSER
Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief
LEA
local educational agency
OIG
Office of Inspector General
Puerto Rico DOE
Puerto Rico Department of Education
SEA
State educational agency

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Puerto Rico DOE’s Comments

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