PROVIDENCE – An independent analysis released last week said that the city school department must transform the way its central office is staffed and works before the school district can rapidly increase student achievement.
Titled “Providence Public Schools: An Assessment of the Need for District Transformation to Accelerate Student Achievement,” the report said the central office is “unable to meet the goals of the school district and [is] lacking key capacities in project management, talent management, data analysis and policy analysis.”
Mass Insight Education conducted the study, which said the department’s central administration does not adequately meet the needs of families and schools. Additionally, obsolete systems hamper the effectiveness of staff and some “workflows are not designed with end users in mind.”
The report offered several recommendations, including: redesigning business processes to increase efficiency, revise the central office’s organizational structure and developing career ladders for placing qualified staff into clearly defined roles.
