Not long after the Providence Public School District was taken over by the state in 2019 to turn around the state’s largest – and extremely beleaguered – public school system, R.I. Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green made a plea to the business community to help the district rise from decades of despair to prominence. In October, she repeated that call for the business community to help Providence schools.
While progress has been made with business groups aiding Providence schools since the state takeover, both school and business officials say more needs to be done, especially with schools still failing.
In the R.I. Department of Education’s 2022 school accountability and improvement results released in December, 31 of the district’s 40 schools have a two-star rating or lower out of a possible five stars. Chronic absenteeism from teachers and students in the city’s schools was among many problems.
Furthermore, officials say the COVID-19 pandemic made the turnaround more problematic, and there is no clear consensus as to how businesses can help.
Neil D. Steinberg, Rhode Island Foundation CEO and president, says businesses should do more “championing and validating” the importance of the Providence schools’ turnaround in lieu of just “writing a check.” Meanwhile, Christopher D. Graham, partner with law firm Locke Lord LLP who chairs the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce’s education council, says the district already has “a lot of money,” between the regular fiscal school budget and the federal American Rescue Plan Act funds the state received from the pandemic.
John J. Igliozzi, former Providence City Council president, says businesses need to see a plan with identified metrics – which PPSD did release in 2020 – but with an “assigned value” to it. In other words, have a plan where if PPSD meets certain metrics, the business community will contribute financially.
“If businesses write a check without any true conditions that [show] improvement … you’re just giving money to say you gave versus achieving a goal,” Igliozzi said.
Infante-Green, however, feels businesses should provide funding to support initiatives within PPSD that are grounded in student advancement and achievement. She says the ARPA money is only good for two years and has limited use.
She is hoping the business community can financially assist PPSD in areas where ARPA money cannot. Regarding Igliozzi’s suggestion, Infante-Green said: “Unfortunately, that is not how education works.”
Infante-Green also feels businesses can help lend expertise in the classroom through career and technical education programs and internships. Edward Lambert, executive director of the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education, agrees.
“Business leaders, if brought into the right kind of partnership, can be very helpful in terms of helping design the curriculum and educators need to let them do that,” Lambert said.
Graham, however, does not see local businesses going into the classroom.
“Businesses from time to time adopted schools and had an impact there. There are different people in the business community who participate in all sorts of programs that include teaching in a classroom through [nonprofit] Junior Achievement or reading to kids,” he said. “In terms of will the leaders of our business groups come to a conclusion that business should do this, that or something else, I doubt it.”
To date, some businesses have provided support toward Providence schools, Infante-Green says. The Gilbane family, of Providence-based construction firm Gilbane Inc., helped establish a dual language program at Roger Williams Middle School. And Delta Dental of Rhode Island has given the district about $300,000 to support science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs, according to the commissioner.
Graham says a subcommittee, via the Chamber’s education council, is working with Brown University’s Annenberg Institute and local colleges to find ways to get more urban teachers hired out of college and into Providence.
“There is a disconnect between the [colleges] and PPSD where they are not working in partnership effectively,” Graham said. “I don’t think it is malintent. It’s just not effectively working together.”
Two Rhode Island Foundation-supported funds have provided PPSD support. Forty-seven teachers of color have been hired by PPSD to date as part of the foundation’s $3.1 million initiative introduced in 2021 to recruit minority teachers. The program looks to hire 125 teachers in total.
The foundation’s Fund for Rhode Island Public Education, established in 2020 for businesses to contribute money to specific schools, has distributed $5.1 million statewide, of which $3.8 million was focused on Providence.
Advocacy supporting Providence schools is the one element both school and business officials agree on. Steinberg says he invited between 15-20 business groups to develop four to five recommendations on improving education around the state. Those recommendations are slated to be presented to elected state officials in a few weeks.
Infante-Green, though, is asking the business community to be on the same page with RIDE and PPSD on creating a “first-class education” in Rhode Island’s capital city.
“We are seeing that there is hope for this to turn around,” Infante-Green said, “and we want the [business] community to come forward and say, ‘We want this to happen.’ ”
