PROVIDENCE – Reaction came swiftly to the vote Thursday evening that state education officials would keep control of the city’s poor–performing schools, possibly until October 2027.
And much of it expressed displeasure with that decision, underscoring some stakeholders’ discontent with the state process, which has excluded local decision-making for almost five years now, as well as skepticism of the value of three more years of state control.
City maintains it was ready to take back Providence's schools
Within minutes of the Council on Elementary and Secondary Education accepting Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green's recommendation, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley and City Council President Rachel Miller issued a joint statement saying they were “disappointed.”
The city leaders said teachers, school staffs and families were collaborating better now to improve student learning and they are eager to take back their schools and continue that progress.
The city would have been ready to resume control a year earlier than Infante-Green's recommendation, they said, by the 2026-2027 school year.
“We are ready to work collaboratively to integrate operations, finances and functions that have become disconnected at times during the current takeover,” Smiley and Miller said.
While two recent outside progress reports said the district was making some progress in certain areas, the mayor and Council president said all parties agree “there is still a lot of room for improvement in fostering a climate of collaboration and community that is required to move the district forward on a timeline that our students deserve.”
More:Ed. commissioner recommends state takeover of Providence's schools continue for at least three years
School board member: Decision is 'disheartening'
Providence School Board President Erlin Rogel said the decision to extend the intervention beyond two years was disheartening.
"The transition back must be a community-driven process that ensures our schools are governed by those closest to the work: a superintendent who can make informed, independent decisions; a school board that can provide meaningful oversight; and a community that has the power to hold us all accountable,” said Rogel in a statement.
"We have a chance now to rethink how we govern our schools and ensure this extended period leads to lasting, meaningful change," Rogel continued.
What does Providence Public Schools need to do to end the state takeover?
In 2019, a scathing report by a team of educatorsfrom Johns Hopkins University found theProvidence school system one of the worst performing in the country, where “very little visible student learning was going on in the majority of classrooms and schools we visited.”
The report found “an exceptionally low level of academic instruction,” schools lacking quality curriculum, buildings in disrepair, school leadership strangled in bureaucracy, teachers demoralized and student expectations low.
Almost five years later with state intervention, Infante-Green has touted improvements in such areas as curriculum, school renovations and teacher training, and pointed out that the Providence school system mitigated learning losses from the pandemic better than surrounding communities.
But proficiency test scores in math and English for many grades remain extremely low.
At the meeting Thursday of the Council on Elementary and Secondary Education, some members said the state needs to give better guidance to school leaders on improving the system, while others said it was time school officials step up and “own this.”
Infante-Green said the roadmap and metrics being used to evaluate the takeover and the responsibilities of school officials are crystal clear and in writing in the Turnaround Action Plan (TAP).
For example, she said, Superintendent Javier Montanez “needs to look at the report and bring back to us what he’s going to do to mitigate some of those things."
"There are measures there he has to meet," she continued. "Those measures are in the TAP.”
And then there is the financing issue. City and state officials are now in a legal battle over how much money the district needs to achieve many of the outlined improvements.
“The district needs consistent funding,” Infante-Green said after Thursday’s meeting. “Not one-offs. Not, ‘we’re going to be generous this year.’ The district needs that to progress. There’s been inflation ... but if you get the same amount of funding, you cannot function as a district. And many of the supports that were put in place require funding. So, I think we all have to work together to figure how the district gets what it needs.”
Business leaders urge city and state leaders to 'put aside squabbles'
By Friday, a business group was weighing in on the extended state intervention.
Rhode Island Businesses for Better Education called on state and city school officials, the Providence Teachers Union and city and state leaders to “put aside squabbles over control and focus with more urgency on student outcomes.”
It urged a more “inclusive and accountable approach, with more urgency to deliver better outcomes for all students.”
“As a state,” saidChelsea DeCesare, spokesperson for RIBBE, “we cannot compete with other states in the region if we don’t quickly chart a new path for students in our largest school district.”
