Domingo Morel is a scholar of state takeovers. He wrote a book called Takeover: Race, Education, and American Democracy. He was also a member of the team from Johns Hopkins that studied the problems of the Providence schools. And, what’s more, he is a graduate of the Providence public schools.
In other words, he has solid credentials to speak about the future of the Providence public schools. The schools are already under mayoral control, so discount that magic bullet that reformers usually prefer.
He knows from his study of state takeovers that they do not address root causes of school dysfunction.
Consider this:
As a scholar of state takeovers of school districts, I have seen how communities desperate to improve their schools placed their hopes in state takeovers, only to be disappointed. While the long-term effects of takeovers on student achievement often fail to meet expectations, the effects on community engagement are devastating. In most takeovers, states remove local entities — school boards, administrators, teachers, parents and community organizations — from decision-making about their schools.
Those who have read the Johns Hopkins report are aware that the absence of community engagement is a major issue in the Providence Schools. Demographic differences are a major reason. Students of color represent more than 85% of the student population and English Language Learners represent nearly 30%, while more than 80% of the teachers are white. These differences are not trivial…
To help cultivate community engagement, the state could partner with a collective of community organizations, including Parents Leading for Educational Equity, ProvParents, the Equity Institute, the Latino Policy Institute, CYCLE and the Providence Student Union, which have come together over concerns with the Providence schools.
Finally, state officials should examine their role in contributing to the current conditions in Providence. State funding, particularly to support English Language Learners and facilities, has been inadequate. In addition, the absence of a pipeline for teachers of color is a state failure.
What a surprising set of recommendations: increase the pipeline of teachers of color. Build community engagement. Work with community organizations. Increase state funding.
He might also have added: Reduce class sizes. Provide wraparound services for students and adults. Open health clinics for families in the schools or communities. Improve and increase early childhood education. Beef up arts education and performance spaces in every school.
It takes a village, not a flock of hedge fund managers or a passel of fly-by billionaires hawking charter schools.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I read the article in this mornings’ Providence Journal and was very glad to see this in print. It needs to be said. I recall when the state took over Central Falls and we in RI know well how badly that turned out. The fact that the mayor is in charge is an immediate red flag – he knows nothing about education and how to run schools. Of course, the candidate for interim superintendent is the former Central Falls super who fired the entire staff at Central Falls HS. This alone speaks volumes. I feel that much of the problems in Providence can be set at the feet of the mayor and his appointed school board.
It is beyond shocking that Frances Gallo, who was superintendent in Central Falls in 2010 when she threatened to fire every staff member in the high school for low scores, is being rehired by the state. In the meanwhile, she has been working for a charter chain. Why wasn’t she held accountable for Central Falls?
Consider who is the governor and who is our new commissioner. Both of them seem to have little true interest in the health of our public school systems. Even the “formula” for state aid to the systems seems to have little rhyme or reason. The commissioner is too new to have any real understanding of Central Falls, but Gina just wears blinders to anything she really doesn’t care about; her responses to questions clearly show she is just waffling and is not about to provide concrete answers.
Your governor and her husband have ties to the charter industry.
I have heard that your new commissioner is a nice person but it is concerning that she joined Jeb Bush’s Chiefs for Change. It is concerning that her only experience in the classroom was TFA. It is concerning that the press release for her appointment gave her credit for score increases by ELLs, when she was only a bureaucrat in the state education office.
I have known about Gina and her husband for quite a while; the new commissioner seems pleasant and seems also to say the “right things”, but given her background I am not sure we should put much trust in her actions at this point. I am adopting a “wait and see” attitude as far as she is concerned. I waited with the last commissioner and when he danced around a question I asked him about evaluating teachers I knew where he was coming from. He, too, said many of the “right things” but like his boss, he danced around the answers far too often,
Not to forget his recommendation: “implement reforms that allow principals to have more influence over decision-making in their schools.”
Such as enabling them to add additional bilingual paraprofessionals without excessive control over the hiring or deployment process by any private corporation?
It strikes me that the state doesn’t want principals to have any control over their schools -then the state wouldn’t be able to pull the puppet strings. Of course, having principals in control might help solve some problems as would including the community in the discussions.
Providence did have two meetings involving the community, one held in English, one held in Spanish. Of course, each one was only one hour long. Got a lot accomplished in that time frame, didn’t they?
This is a useful blueprint for how to rebuild a school district, not tear it down in the name of “progress.” Considering the poor track record of takeovers, Providence should employ options that include local governance. Generally, takeovers result in a privatization cop-out. Privatization denies local communities local governance, and it will not improve the number of minority teachers. Privatization has never been helpful to English language learners. Private charters schools generally reject these needy students. Privatization will not address most of the systemic problems in the district. Investing in and rebuilding what the city already had makes more sense.
OMG … how stupid and embarrassing. ALL this &^%* is about JIM CROW.
Increasing the number of teachers of color, as well as those for whom English is not their first language, in our schools systems is a must. However, we can easily see that the reformsters have made it more difficult to do so. In Massachusetts, teachers persuing certification must pass state tests – and the percentages of these teachers who fail to do so is disproportionate. Also, the VAMmy types of evaluations so popularized by the reformsters also disproportionately flag practicing teachers of color as “ineffective”.
At my school, we had a terrific French teacher who was a Bulgarian who had won the visa lottery. She was authorized to work on a waiver for three years, but repeatedly missed a passing grade on the English portion of the teacher exam by a point or two, despite hiring a tutor. She had no difficulty communicating with the kids in English, and more to the point, because her classes were taught using an immersion approach, her French was excellent. When she was not rehired, she got a job teaching French at a small private university. Our students were the losers.
Sounds like another example of a failed test. When we accepted the legitimacy of single tests that dominate evaluation, we accepted a process that has no way of verifying the truth of the testing.
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