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In between 1898-1900, Dr. John Eaton, United States Ex Education Commisssioner and Dr. Victor Clark (his helper) established that puerto rican teachers needed to learn English.
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In 1900 the Department of Public Instruction was created with an assignated Commissioner.
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Educational policy was to retain the Spanish and acquire English. The Spanish in the elementary grades teaching English as a special subject. In High School all subjects were in English and Spanish was taught as a special subject.
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Between 1905-1913 Spanish is suppressed. English is used as medium of instruction in all grades of the school system.
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In 1915 a Law was presented to make Spanish the compulsory medium of instruction.
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In 1916-1934 it was established that the Spanish were the medium of instruction from first through fourth grades and English were used in half of the subjects and in the fifth grades the other half would be taught in Spanish. This same policy applied for grades six through eight and also in high school.
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This was the time of Miller's defense in English and Jose de Diego in the Spanish defense. He put greater emphasis on the use of English outside classes, teacher meetings and conversations between teachers and students. Only published material in English and in Spanish publishing materials was banned completely.
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Commissioner Jose M. Gallardo tried to implement Bilingual Programs but didn't succeed.
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English continues as a subjecto. Spanish is the main teaching language through sixth grade.
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The vernacular was used as a way of instruction up to ninth grade.
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1949- 1950 Dr. Mariano Villaronga established that Spanish would be taught at all levels of the public school, ending the debate on bilingualism.
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President Johnson signed the United States Bilingual Act.
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1972-1976 Father Rufo and Juan VIII- Bilingual Projects were implemented in Puerto Rico under the Democratic Popular Party.
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1980-1984 Governor Carlos Romero Barceló transfered the Bilingual Program to the English Department.
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1988-1992 Rafael Hernndez Colón was elected as a Governor. Four new projects were approved for the Department of Education in different universities to emphasized English as a second language
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Governor Rafael Hernández Colón declared Spanish the island's sole official language
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Both English and Spanish became official languages, and should be use indistinctively in all goverment agencies.
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An English immersion program was developed as a pilot. Both English and Spanish were taught in public shools.
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Spanish was declared as the sole official language of the Puerto Rican governmemt
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Puerto Rico implements the Bilingual Education for the 21st century.
