Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo and top state education officials urged business leaders to become involved in helping the state takeover of Providence’s faltering schools at a well-attended luncheon sponsored by the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce at the Omni Hotel.
“Kids in Massachusetts are no better and no brighter than kids in Rhode Island,” said Raimondo, who urged several hundred business and education leaders to do more to help Rhode Island schools, including increasing the number of internships they offer to public school students.
Raimondo, the state’s new education commissioner, Angelica Infante-Green and state school board chairwoman Barbara Cottam had little new to say at the event, but all vowed to tackle the capital city schools with a sense of urgency and focus.
Infante Green also said the city is seeking more young teachers from Teach for America to help in a school, district that began the year with 90 teacher vacancies. Currently TFA only earmarks about 20 teachers to Providence, she said.
Teach for America trains recent college graduates to teach in low-income schools districts across the nation.
A June report by education experts from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore stated that Providence schools were among the nation’s worst. The report said the 24,000-student district –Rhode Island’s largest –was a dysfunctional mess, rife with student and teacher absenteeism, poor test scores and rundown buildings. The student test scores look particularly bad when compared with neighboring Massachusetts, which has among the nation’s top public school student test achievement.
Cottam said that a student who misses two days of school per month ends up with 18 days absent for the year, or 10 percent of the 180-day school year.
Infante Green said the test scores aren’t going to move dramatically until the district cleans up its other problems, beginning with absenteeism among students and teachers. The state will begin using Internet tools to track and combat absenteeism. She said providing order in schools and tamping down other problems, such as disciplinary issues, will lead to better school cultures. Those improvements will likely happen before test scores jump.
One area the state is doing well in is early childhood education, said Raimondo. From kindergarten until third grade, Rhode Island children do well when compared with scores from other states. But after that, achievement slides downhill.
“The longer they stay with us the worse they do,” said Infante Green.
Some businesses are providing internships, said Raimondo. She mentioned CVS and Quonset-based submarine builder Electric Boat. But more businesses must be willing to step up, said Cottam. “Don’t sit on the sidelines,” said Cottam.
“We don’t need luck, we need you to stand with us,” said Raimondo.