Rhode Island
Graded on Its Own Curve: RIDE Declared the Providence Schools Takeover a Success—Its Own Scorecard Shows 10 of 43 Goals Met
What happened
When the Rhode Island Department of Education took over Providence’s public schools in 2019, it drew up a scorecard of 43 quantifiable goals to measure whether the takeover worked. Ocean State Media reports that the scorecard was built with input from parents, educators and students at dozens of community meetings.
In July, as the takeover ended a year early, RIDE published what Ocean State Media calls “a celebratory final report.” That report never mentioned the scorecard. Ocean State Media asked for an updated copy. RIDE’s own scorecard shows the takeover met just 10 of the 43 goals and fell short on all six student-achievement metrics on Rhode Island’s standardized tests and the SATs.
Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green defended the effort: “We have fixed a system that was broken.” According to Ocean State Media, when pressed, she said politics influenced the decision to end the takeover this year. Reforms that needed the mayor’s support had stalled. Then Mayor Brett Smiley worked out a timeline for ending the takeover with Gov. Dan McKee. She also said the scorecard no longer fairly measures the takeover, because the pandemic and politics kept it from working as well as it should have. (These points are Ocean State Media’s summary of the interview, not her direct quotes.)
Other results Ocean State Media reports from the district’s own data:
- Enrollment in traditional public schools fell from 23,955 to 19,824 as more students switched to charters.
- District surveys show the share of parents with a positive view of the school system decreased during the takeover.
- Test scores “improved modestly in a few categories, and declined in others.”
- The graduation rate rose from 73% to 79%, per RIDE.
Parent Gabe Long, who served on a citywide parent advisory council, said of district updates: “It was all, ‘Here's this report about how great we're doing. Any questions?’” he said. “It didn't feel like there was actually any feedback happening.” On the early handback, he said: “They were saying that they hadn't achieved what they wanted,” Long said. “And then for, as far as I can tell, political purposes, they reversed that position and decided to give the schools back a year early.”
Teacher and union vice president Laura Almagno asked, “What was the state takeover about?” She continued: “Is it something tangible I can see in terms of student growth with ELA and math? No.” She told Ocean State Media that a student who had missed nearly every class showed up two days before graduation, and a principal asked her, “What can he do to make up the work?” She said the student wrote a single essay with an adult’s help and graduated. District spokesperson Alex Torres-Perez said administrators would need to review the student’s record to verify the story, but that this is not acceptable protocol.
Update (Oct 21): Infante-Green Says She Would Have Asked for “a Longer Timeframe”
The commissioner looks back. In an interview with Ocean State Media’s Ian Donnis published Wednesday, Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green was asked about the effectiveness of the Providence takeover. She said: “Hindsight is always 20/20. The school board, I think, would’ve been a little different for us; the relationship with the school board. I also would’ve asked for staff in my office because I think we did this with no additional staff. I would’ve also asked for a longer timeframe because I think that that is important.”
She pointed to new and renovated buildings and gave one number: “I will tell you that when we took over, 37% of the student body was going to low-performing schools. Right now it’s only 18%, so that is a win.”
Original reporting
Read the underlying sources:
RIDE — Declaratory Orders Nos. 26-002 and 26-005 on the return to local control (June 30, 2026)
Related Virtue Forge briefing — Seven years under the state, three months of infighting
Related Virtue Forge briefing — McKee spins flat RICAS scores
Virtue Forge commentary
This is what accountability looks like when the government grades itself. The state wrote its own 43-point test with the community, failed 33 of the items, including every academic one, and then published a victory lap that left the test out. The scorecard only came out because a reporter asked for it.
The bigger problem is the reason for the timing. A takeover justified by children’s test scores ended, by the commissioner’s own account, on a political timeline worked out between the mayor and the governor during re-election season. Seven years of centralized control, from the Johns Hopkins report that declared the district in crisis to a handback while enrollment dropped by about 4,100 students, is a warning against the idea that more power at the top fixes broken institutions. Families answered the way free people do: they left for charters.
What to watch: whether RIDE publishes the full 43-goal scorecard on its own; whether the General Assembly or the new Providence School Board asks for it; and whether the returned district, already losing senior staff and fighting over its board president, can show results that someone else is grading.