Rhode Island to Keep Control of Providence Schools for Three More Years

This article was originally published in Rhode Island Current.

Providence will get its schools back from state control, Rhode Island’s education commissioner promised Thursday night. Just not right now.

Angélica Infante-Green, commissioner of the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE), supplied her long-awaited recommendation as to whether the state takeover of Providence’s public schools, which started in November 2019, should continue, at a meeting of the Rhode Island Council on Elementary and Secondary Education.

“RIDE does not intend — and I wanna repeat that — does not intend to keep the district forever,” Infante-Green told the council.

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But the state does want to hold the district close a little longer: Infante-Green advised that the council extend the state intervention through Oct.15, 2027, and it was unanimously approved by the council.

Infante-Green indicated that there was also a chance local control could return before the end of the three year period, if there’s sufficient progress in student proficiency and other stakeholders’ willingness to work in tandem with RIDE. That didn’t mollify the Providence School Board, the mayor’s office or the City Council, all of whom noted their disappointment in statements following the meeting.

A premature end to the takeover extension would require council approval, the council’s chair Patricia DiCenso confirmed to reporters after the meeting. But it would not necessitate that the district fulfills everything outlined in the state’s “turnaround action plan” — the guiding set of metrics used to evaluate the takeover’s success.

During the meeting, a pair of old wooden chairs helped Infante-Green illustrate why the state takeover of Providence public schools isn’t ready to end.

She motioned to the scratched, chipped and dented seats, which were staged against a wall in an education department conference room . The councilors spun around to look. The chairs once belonged to the auditorium in Providence’s Hope High School , which first underwent state intervention back in the 2000s and initially saw gains in problem areas before returning to pre-takeover disorder within a few years.

The chairs are normally stationed outside the commissioner’s office — a reminder, she said, of the need to see things through for students.

“It reminds me that we cannot fail them yet again,” Infante-Green said. “The importance of the symbolism of Hope High School is the cautionary example of what happens when the state leaves too early.”

State control not unique

When Infante-Green spoke to reporters on Aug. 16 , the day two progress reports on the takeover were released, she said that all three options — end, continue or revise the takeover — were “still on the table.”

One report from Harvard Graduate School of Education showed post-pandemic progress in Providence schools compared to similar districts in other New England states. But anyone who read the report RIDE paid $120,600 for , from education consulting firm SchoolWorks, might have surmised that the school system is nowhere near reaching its turnaround goals.

One example: In the 2022-2023 school year, eighth-graders’ math proficiency was at 6%, which was one percentage point lower than the pre-takeover baseline numbers from 2018. The turnaround action plan wanted 50% proficiency in math by 2026.

In five years, the Providence takeover has drawn much media and legislative attention — including a study commission led by Sen. Sam Zurier, a Providence Democrat and education committee member who often reminisces fondly at state house meetings about his own time in Providence schools. The commission’s 275-page report in May, concluded that a more lasting solution for the Providence takeover could derive inspiration from other states, like the Springfield Empowerment Zone in Massachusetts that nullified “the threat of an imminent state takeover” with new arrangements for collective bargaining and shared governance of schools.

As Zurier’s commission found, history indeed repeats, and the Providence takeover is not unique . State control has been tested to varied results in school districts big and small. The state of Texas took over Houston’s schools in 2023, a big experiment given that the district serves over 194,000 students, a lot more than Providence’s approximately 22,000 students. New Orleans’ schools came under state control in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and the city has since transitioned to a distinct model of charter-only education. Even in Rhode Island, Providence’s neighbor Central Falls has had its schools under state control for over 30 years . The Providence Public Schools building on Westminster Street is where the Providence School Board meets. But the board’s powers have been delimited since the state takeover in 2019, rendering some of their actions — like an Aug. 21, 2024, resolution to end the takeover — statutorily toothless. (Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current)

Underperformance and funding tend to underline the decision to seize control of a municipal school district. Subpar education in Providence was a salient argument in the 2019 Johns Hopkins School of Education report that predated the takeover: “The great majority of students are not learning on, or even near, grade level,” the report stated.

Rhode Island’s annual proficiency assessments for third- and eighth-grade students will be released this fall, but the recent SchoolWorks data suggests that underperformance is still the norm.

Tepid reception to takeover

Before the council voted on the commissioner’s recommendation, chair DiCenso pointed to funding as the foremost challenge.

“When this district went into control, they were listed as the worst in the country,” DiCenso said. “And I don’t think it was the families’ fault. I don’t think it was the children’s fault. I don’t think it was the teachers’ fault. I look back at 17 years, or at least 10-plus years, of level funding, no funding from this city to say ‘We believe in our schools.’”

“We just can’t pretend that it’s all about what’s happening at the building level and at the district level,” DiCenso said.

Michael Grey, who chairs the state Board of Education, seemed content with the turnaround plan’s potential for accountability.

“I also think that this is incumbent upon the commissioner, because the weight of this is on her, statutorily, and on us as advisers to be the one that makes the call,” Grey said.

That contrasted the opinion of the Providence School Board, who voted unanimously last Thursday to pass a resolution urging the commissioner to end the takeover — a motion as symbolic as the chairs outside Infante-Green’s office, given that the state takeover has stripped away most of the municipal body’s powers.

“I have felt, and I think I can speak for some of my board members, completely powerless,” said board member Anjel Newmann last week. “And if we feel powerless, how do our students and families feel? … No shade to the commissioner [but] I want to see the district come back to a community, into a collective, and not be subject to one person’s veto power.”

School board President Erlin Rogel reaffirmed that viewpoint in an email Thursday after the council vote, and called the continued takeover “disappointing” — a sentiment shared by Providence Mayor Brett Smiley and City Council President Rachel Miller.

“We have also heard from families, teachers and our own city departments that 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,” Smiley and Miller offered in a joint statement Thursday, and added that they were “disappointed by the recommendation.”

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Infante-Green characterized her decision as a positive one for Providence students and families.

“This is about supporting the district in a way that could not happen,” she said. “That is the bottom line. I think we all know that mayor after mayor after mayor has tried. I think this mayor’s putting some processes in place, but there’s a lot of work that still needs to happen.”

Rhode Island Current is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Rhode Island Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janine L. Weisman for questions: info@rhodeislandcurrent.com . Follow Rhode Island Current on Facebook and X .