What the Data Says About Rhode Island’s 7-year Takeover of Providence Schools
Rhode Island Department of Education released a 62-page report last week — an epilogue to the agency’s intervention in the capital city’s public schools.
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By some metrics, things are looking up for the Providence Public School District (PPSD). Students are coming to class more often. Their standardized test scores are rising. And more of them are graduating high school.
These are a few of the accomplishments the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) highlights in a released Friday — an epilogue to the agency’s intervention in the capital city’s public schools, which went under state control in 2019.
“The measurable progress made under the state intervention is undeniable,” Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green wrote in the introduction to the report. “PPSD has not only stabilized, but it is moving forward with real momentum.”
On the other end of the takeover’s nearly seven-year timeline is a different report: A prepared by a team of researchers who documented a school system plagued by systemic issues — problems severe enough that the report garnered national attention when released.
Infante-Green writes in the introduction to her agency’s new report that its Johns Hopkins predecessor was a “heartbreaking” and “devastating” document, one that showcased “deteriorating buildings, inconsistent curriculum, ineffective central-office practices, and systemic inequities that created barriers to the academic success for the district’s historically underserved students.”
Some of the most tangible transformation in Providence has been made on that first bullet point: Six new or renovated schools opened during the intervention, compared to only one built in the 15 years prior to the takeover. According to the RIDE report, there are 14 additional school construction or renovation projects still underway or planned. Seven projects are slated for completion in the next two years, while the remainder have no projected completion date yet.
Overall, across all 20 projects finished and unfinished, the state’s contributions to capital improvement in the district could reach nearly $984.6 million — an investment buoyed by $665 million in school construction bonds approved by the city’s voters between 2020 and 2024.
A less flashy but still important quality-of-life improvement made during the takeover: A drinking fountain in all 37 of the district’s schools. The “bubblers,” RIDE’s report notes invoking a Rhode Island colloquialism, supply clean and filtered water for all schools, addressing the numerous reports of brown and often lead-contaminated water that poured from school taps back in 2019, per the Johns Hopkins report.
What the metrics say
Buildings improved during the takeover, but what was happening inside? RIDE’s new self-assessment gives a less concrete answer as to how much academics have improved since 2019.
Students’ math proficiency rose from 11.9% in 2019 to 16.4% in 2025. English language arts proficiency inched up, from 17.2% to 17.7%. Both numbers translate to more than four out of five Providence students remaining below grade-level expectations.
A four-year graduation rate of 79% in 2024, however, was the highest in district history, the report noted. The statewide rate that year was 84.1%.
Chronic absenteeism, which peaked at 57.1% during the 2021-22 school year, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, fell to 29.3% in 2024-25.
Pre-K capacity also increased during the takeover, from 352 available seats in 2019 to 940 in the 2025-2026 school year. Dual-language enrollment also grew, expanding into high schools and rising from 1,065 to 1,968 seats across grade levels in the district.
In a Monday email, Providence School Board President Ty’Relle Stephens said the report “did a strong job highlighting many of the accomplishments achieved during the state intervention,” including “historic investment” in facilities and expanded career and technical education (CTE) and dual language programs and offerings.
“These are meaningful accomplishments that represent real progress for Providence students and families, and that progress deserves to be recognized,” Stephens wrote.
Still, the academic data was not entirely celebratory for Stephens, who noted that most Providence students currently fail to meet grade-level expectations. Third-grade English Language Arts proficiency “remains below where it was when the takeover began,” he said.
Stephens also pointed out a somewhat deceptive statistic: 14.3% of the city’s high school juniors met or exceeded expectations on the SAT math exam last year. But that rate fell to 3.8% when excluding scores from Classical High School, which has consistently statewide in national ranking lists.
‘Organizational paralysis’
RIDE’s report is also intended to serve as a blueprint for Providence leaders to build upon now that the district is back under local control.
Some of the sharper instructions from RIDE come near the end of the report, on page 51, which outlines “Roles and Responsibilities” upon the district’s return to local control, which formally resumed July 1.
The 2019 Johns Hopkins report “called out overlapping spheres of authority among the mayor, superintendent, school board and union,” RIDE recaps in its new report, adding that this helped inflict an “organizational paralysis” on the district.
“It is critical that PPSD doesn’t return to a state of competing authority and organizational paralysis,” the RIDE report reads, and references a declaratory order issued on June 30, the final day of state control.
The order bars Providence from reclaiming unspent money for its general fund, and it also specifies that only the superintendent — not the School Board — has the authority to appoint administrators in the district.
The order derived in part from a proposal from Stephens earlier in the year that would have eliminated a labor and employment counsel role at PPSD, and redirected those funds to two staff positions, a director and coordinator, who would report to the School Board.
The order did not give a final legal interpretation of Stephens’ proposal, citing “the absence of a more complete evidentiary record,” but added that “would appear to usurp the Superintendent’s express statutory powers.”
The recommendations in RIDE’s new report cites the declaratory order in its outline of shared authority going forward, but “it is important to be clear that they are recommendations,” Stephens wrote.
“They are advisory and do not, on their own, carry the force of law,” the school board president added. “Nevertheless, the Board has taken them seriously. We developed a public transition dashboard and have already addressed, or begun addressing, many of them.”
To sustain the district’s successes, RIDE’s report states the city must commit long-term funding — something that remained a big question for state officials when determining whether to relinquish control back to local officials.
Then-Providence-Mayor Jorge Elorza and the City Council the state in a court battle in 2021 over the city’s alleged underfunding of its schools, which ultimately led to the state securing a in 2024.
“One area I would have welcomed more guidance on is the academic path forward,” Stephens noted, adding that “clear recommendations around accelerating student achievement and closing persistent opportunity and achievement gaps would be valuable” to both the school board and the district.
Wrote Stephens: “[I]n the end, our success will not be measured simply by who governs Providence Public Schools, but by something far more important: whether our children are learning, whether they are thriving, and whether every student, in every neighborhood, has a genuine opportunity to reach their fullest potential.”
is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Rhode Island Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janine L. Weisman for questions: [email protected].
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