R.I. Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green has been in Rhode Island for less than a year, but she now finds herself trying to fix a mess that’s been decades in the making.
She’s leading the state’s takeover of the Providence Public School District, a system deeply mired in academic and organization problems, according to a scathing independent review issued in June.
For the next five years, Rhode Island’s largest school district will be under direct state control, and Infante-Green is tasked with making improvements. The path is going to be determined by early next year.
Infante-Green, previously a chief New York state education official, assumed control of Providence schools on Nov. 1. She says the city’s nearly 24,000 students will be the focus of her attention. Beyond Providence, all Rhode Islanders should have an interest in seeing the city schools succeed because they are integral to the state’s economic success, she says.
And she’s asking the business community to do its part to help.
“That’s the economic health of this community. And if we’re not putting in money now, we’re going to be putting it in later if our kids don’t graduate,” Infante-Green said. “It’s in all of our best interest, so that Rhode Island is a state that is flourishing.”
What are your powers under state control of the Providence schools? Under the Crowley Act, they are the same that the mayor, the City Council and the school board have.
The Providence superintendent position has been described as a “turnaround” position. Are you looking for someone who is going to commit to the district for many years? I didn’t think of long term, short term. I thought about who is the most capable person, who has a track record of success, [who] can come in and make as much change as possible, as quickly as possible.
The New York school system recently tried to recruit you back. Are you committing to the Rhode Island schools for the length of the takeover? I have a three-year contract. If I am asked to stay after that, I am more than happy to.
We know this system has been broken for decades. … So [repairing it] takes time.
Are there other districts beyond Providence where the state may intervene, and or take over, and what is the difference between those terms? Are there districts that we’re going to be working very closely with? Yes. There are several districts. We already work with the lowest 5%. We’re going to be working closely with the [lowest] 10% after that … to see if we can leverage some of the things we’re going to be doing in Providence, so we can continue to move the needle.
Was it always your expectation that this was going to take longer than three years in Providence? Oh, yes. Change doesn’t happen that quickly in education. Also, we know this system has been broken for decades. … So that takes time.
The other reason I was adamant about the five years is there is this fear that if the political parties, or whoever is in charge of the mayor’s office, the governor’s office, wants to do something different. … The plan lives beyond all of us.
What are you asking businesses to do to help improve Providence schools? No. 1, we have a campaign to fix shared spaces, [such as] libraries, auditoriums. In New York City, they have the Robin Hood Foundation, which actually fixed all the elementary libraries throughout the city. So, we want to have something like that to say to the kids and the teachers, “This is important. Where you go to school is important.”
What would the businesses do there? Either bring in funding to help get it done, or staff to help get it done. Also, we talked about mentorship. We also talked about bringing in expertise and having a menu of things, kind of … adopting a school and what does that mean.
You’ve had time to visit the schools. What is your overall impression of the condition of them? They’re cleaner. We made sure schools were clean to open. However, some of the schools are really in terrible shape.
Teachers have told me when it rains, they have to put buckets by the windows. They keep fixing it, and it keeps happening. The second thing, they changed the floors, but the desks were old and uneven, so they scratched up and ruined the floors. There are places where there are no doors on bathrooms. There’s no lighting. The ceiling is falling.
Do you think some of these schools should be closed? Some schools, we are considering closing. We have schools where there were bats in them. The solution was to put a net. We worked with them [city school officials] to get the bats out of the building. There are buildings where there are clear signs that say don’t let the younger kids go upstairs, there is asbestos. So, what about the older kids? Brown water coming out of fountains. They’ve gotten used to this. But it is not normal or OK.
You’ve said that for the past 20 years, the state has essentially abandoned the public schools in Providence. The schools have mostly minority-race students. Do you think there is an element of racism here? Absolutely.
It’s not just that it’s suburban versus urban? Well, there’s a little bit of that. Only because in my time here, I’ve realized how parochial this place is. There is this feeling of, well, I don’t live in Providence, I’m not going to help Providence. The places with the most diversity are the most struggling, and the most neglected. When I show you these pictures, you’ll see whether this is something that would be allowed somewhere else. If other types of kids went to this school, would that be allowed? I have to tell you it wouldn’t.
The Rhode Island Comprehensive Assessment System test scores came out recently. And the scores were particularly bad for English language learners. Is it not just the language barrier that’s the issue, but that they aren’t getting effective teachers? No. 1, a majority of the teachers don’t look like the kids, and there’s a lot of research that talks about how important that is. The other piece is that I don’t think that in a place where there is more money or the kids look differently, we would allow a child to have 11 English teachers [in one school year]. Someone that works in our office told us her nephew has not had math for two years.
According to the report from Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy, some students have reported that teachers have said things to them that appear to be racist. Are there some teachers who shouldn’t be working there? I think some of the teachers don’t know how to work with different communities, that that is a big problem in many places. I went to a school on Monday where a student told me that a teacher had told her that she really shouldn’t think she was going to college, [when she was] in elementary school. That had really disheartened her. Years later, it still bothered her.
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TEACHER TRAINING: R.I. Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green says she wants to see teachers be more culturally responsive, as well as establish one curriculum for elementary schools and one curriculum for middle schools in Providence. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO[/caption]
What do you say to business owners who are saying, “We already pay business taxes,” or ‘“We aren’t even in Providence. Why should we contribute more to support Providence schools?” I would say Providence is the capital city. We will not be able to attract new business, and new business brings more business to everyone. We all understand that. So that’s the economic health of this community. And if we’re not putting in money now, we’re going to be putting it in later if our kids don’t graduate. So, I think it’s in all of our best interest, so that Rhode Island is a state that is flourishing.
What can you say to teachers who feel demoralized? We understand there are challenges that teachers in other places don’t face. This is an opportunity for us to reimagine what a good education system can look like. For those teachers [who] are dedicated, this is going to be a breath of fresh air.
How can you diversify the teaching staff? We’re working with the Smithsonian Institute to recruit teachers of STEM [science, technology, engineering and math] who are of color. We’re also talking with the colleges and universities, starting a pipeline in the schools in Providence. Let’s all do it together, instead of doing these one-offs. And then we’ll figure out how to row together. And how do we incentivize students from Providence, when they go to college, that they are going into the teaching profession.
Can you restructure the teaching contract? And how would you do that? I think the union and I both know there have to be changes to the contract. Right now, some of the restrictions we have for hiring are based on the contract. We can’t hire until September because everyone from the district has to be taken first before we can place an outside candidate. September is too late. The teachers get only one day of professional development. That’s not OK.
Is a longer school day a possibility? It might be. A lot of those decisions are going to be made locally, but we have to have the flexibility to make those decisions. So, the principal could say, our kids are struggling, maybe we need this extra hour.
You’ve mentioned teachers need training in being culturally responsive. Is that your No. 1 priority for training? There’s that, as well as on the curriculum. What are the standards? What is the curriculum? We have a hodgepodge of curriculum that is being used. Sometimes there are two to three curriculums being used in a school, on a grade. … In Providence, what we’re trying to do is have one curriculum for the elementary schools, one for the middle schools.
How will you get professional development funded? You recently asked business leaders to pitch in. Why is the business community a good source for that effort? I think that’s important. Some businesses would like to be in Providence [but] don’t want their children in this type of system. The business community has been very clear that they want to help, and this is something we need. We need to pay someone to do the professional development, and then we need to pay the teachers.
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STEPPING UP: R.I. Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green is seeking to form partnerships with local businesses. / PBN PHOTO/MIKE SKORSKI[/caption]
On English as a second language students, it’s a large and growing portion of the student population. The Johns Hopkins report was highly critical of the education quality for these students, saying they looked lost and forgotten in classrooms. You’ve said you want more bilingual education. How do you start improving this? One, is finding the teachers [who] are already in our system [who] can do the dual-language piece. … [And] figuring out, with colleges and universities, how we can fast-track [certification], or what we can provide to teachers without diminishing the requirements, so we can get more teachers … certified in that area. How do we incentivize that? The other piece is changing our regulations, so we have [teacher license] reciprocity with many other states. We only have reciprocity now with Massachusetts and Connecticut.
How fast can you improve the curriculum among schools? We took an inventory of what the schools have. Which of them are already deemed high-quality by EdReports, which is an organization that looks at curriculum and matches the standards. In places where the curriculum is really not aligned, we’re just going to have to do a clean sweep.
Are you looking at standardizing curriculum just in English and math – the tested subjects? No, we’re going to start there. I went to a school on Monday where they have their own teacher-developed curriculum. They really want to keep their curriculum. I asked them what does your data look like? They’re at 14% [of students meeting expectations] in English language arts. So, 14% of the kids are on grade level. … At 14%, it’s not working.
Mary MacDonald is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Macdonald@PBN.com.
