Summit aims to make R.I.’s education system 'world class'

PROVIDENCE — For years as Rhode Island has sought to improve its schools, officials have jumped at “flavors of the moment” solutions that have proven insufficient, says Neil Steinberg, chairman of the Rhode Island Foundation.

Take, for example, mandates to put computers in every classroom.

“If the kids can’t read, or they’re watching Youtube videos, computers in the classroom didn’t necessarily help them,” he said.

What’s been missing in Rhode Island — and what Massachusetts adopted more than 25 years ago — is a long-term strategy for coordinated educational improvements and a strong-willed philosophy to stay the course, Steinberg said.

“One of the challenges in Rhode Island is we haven’t stayed the course," he said.

On Saturday, Steinberg and the foundation solicited the knowledge of more than 300 educational professionals, parents, politicians and students who gathered at the Rhode Island Convention Center to help plot a 10-year course toward making the state’s public education system “world class.”

And at the end of the all-day brainstorming session, Steinberg told the group: “Massachusetts does not have smarter students. Massachusetts does not have better education results because they have a better economy. They have a better economy because they have the better education results.”

Work on the foundation’s new educational mission began in November 2018 when, for the first time, Rhode Island student performance was compared with that of Massachusetts; it was possible because the two states had begun using the same standardized test.

As The Journal reported at the time, Rhode Island’s school districts performed so poorly on the test that students in neighboring Seekonk outscored them in nearly every district.

Massachusetts has been a national leader in school reform, prompted by a 1993 lawsuit that challenged how schools were funded and forced the state and its communities to do more.

The Bay State established high standards, developed tests to measure whether students met those standards, tied high-school graduation to a test and set a higher bar for teachers.

Rhode Island’s poor test showing last year prompted the Rhode Island Foundation to form a “Long-Term Education Planning Committee” with the goal of crafting a vision for a pre-K to 12th-grade public education that prepares “all students to succeed in life and contribute productively to the community.”

For the past year, the committee (about two dozen members from the fields of education, business and labor) met regularly to discuss ways to boost school standards, support teachers and school leaders, address school-governance issues and improve funding.

The committee came up with a host of broad ideas, and it was the work of the 300 people assembled Saturday to find tactics to implement those ideas.

The gathering broke into discussion groups of about 50 people each.

Overheard topics of discussion included the “real life” challenges that some students — and therefore teachers — face, such as student homelessness; a state education department that piles on teacher expectations without offering much support; grant money that comes with such rigid spending restrictions that teachers can’t use the funds for other needs; the longstanding inequity among communities' school systems; and the reliance on the property tax for school funding, which divides communities.

Mary Anne Roll, the president of the Rhode Island Association of School Committees, said after one discussion session that “of course” a long-term solution means additional taxes.

“And that means political will. We also really need to expand this conversation to every community,” she said.

As the groups came back together at the end of the day, R.I. Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio, R.I. House Rep. Joseph M. McNamara, state education Commissioner Angélica Infant-Green and Gov. Gina Raimondo all pledged their support.

“I’m realistic about how hard it’s going to be,” said Raimondo. “It’s going to take everything we said: money, cooperation, partnership, innovation, commitment, long-term vision. But we’re going to do it .... The children in other cities and states are no smarter than ours, they’re no more deserving than ours, and it’s on us to do whatever it takes.”

As Steinberg told those gathered: “The reality is this is Rhode Island’s Olympic quest. This is our moon shot. For 10 years, aim for the stars. The stars are our kids.”

— tmooney@providencejournal.com

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