As Rhode Island Education Commissioner Peter McWalters prepares to rule Friday on whether to approve state intervention at Providence's troubled Hope High School, one local politician says he wants city leaders to "think like visionaries" as they try to turn conditions at the school around.
Ward 7 City Councilman John Igliozzi forwarded a proposal to local community and educational leaders in December, calling for the city to demolish Hope's current building and sell its 18 acres of surrounding property. The state could then use the profits to construct three small, independent charter schools, he said.
This plan entails the formation of public-private partnerships with Brown, Johnson and Wales University and the Rhode Island School of Design. These private institutions - which Igliozzi called "the cream of the crop" in their respective disciplines - would each design a curriculum and operate one of the charter schools, overseeing approximately 400 to 500 students, Igliozzi said.
Brown would manage a general education high school, RISD would develop an arts program and Johnson and Wales would control a school to specialize in vocational training.
Both RISD and Johnson and Wales contacted Igliozzi after receiving his proposal, and he said he hopes to meet with these schools in the coming weeks. Administrators at Johnson and Wales have been "very receptive," he said, while RISD President Roger Mandle has been "willing to listen." Igliozzi said he is hoping Brown will contact him to schedule a meeting, though the University has yet to do so.
So far, Brown has been "a little reluctant to engage," Igliozzi said.
Mark Nickel, director of the Brown News Service, said the University has not taken a position on Igliozzi's proposal.
Brown "should be more than happy to participate," Igliozzi said. Such an effort would underscore a larger commitment to improving educational conditions in Providence as well as bolstering the city's economic growth, he said.
Mandle told The Herald that RISD has been actively involved in education efforts at Hope for "a number of years" and has met with McWalters to discuss ways to "ramp up our investment of people to help solve the Hope situation."
But, he said, RISD will probably not choose to oversee a charter school.
"We just are not in a position to take over the management of Hope High School in any respect," Mandle said. "We can be allies, we can be supporters, but we cannot manage any or all of Hope High School."
Mandle added that he has been in touch with administrators at Brown and at Johnson and Wales concerning Igliozzi's plan. He said he believes they share RISD's position regarding the proposal.
"I know that Brown is already actively involved with Hope in a number of ways," he said. "We're all trying to do what we can."
Public-private partnerships would greatly benefit the Providence school district, which currently serves approximately 28,000 students, Igliozzi said.
"It is imperative ... that these children see proper education in order to continue the financial and economic health of the whole state of Rhode Island," he said.
Igliozzi said he agrees with many community leaders who contend that the Providence School Department's attempts to address Hope's problems internally have not produced satisfactory results.
"We're two years into the action plan and the results are negative, not positive," he said, referring to improvement efforts that district superintendent Melody Johnson said began following McWalters' first intervention in 2001.
These efforts should not be permitted to continue, Igliozzi said.
Igliozzi is one of several politicians and community leaders calling for state intervention. At a public hearing Dec. 15, the Providence Educational Excellence Coalition - which features members from a variety of local youth and faith-based organizations - recommended McWalters shut down the school, which consistently tests far below state and national standards and has the highest dropout rate among Providence high schools.
Igliozzi said he is skeptical of state intervention proposals that support keeping Hope at its current location.
"What we're talking about is having the same old, same old," he said of such proposals. "I'm trying to provide the next step."
Igliozzi described Hope's current building as "antiquated," and "in a constant state of disrepair," saying efforts to improve the structure would prove too costly for the city. One estimate placed the cost of necessary repairs between $45 and $55 million, he said.
Though the building itself suffers from neglect, Igliozzi said the site's property could be a major asset to the city, particularly given its "beautiful" view of the Providence skyline.
If the property were sold or leased, the city could raise approximately $60 million, he estimated. Officials could also opt to keep four or five acres upon which to construct one of the charter schools, he said.
"The economics work," Igliozzi said. "That's the easiest part."
A larger challenge lies in convincing leaders "to be humble enough to ask for help" from private institutions, he said. Engaging private universities in the welfare of Providence public schools will allow the district to pursue education initiatives politicians "talk about but rarely achieve," he said.
The creation of "neighborhood schools" would cut down on average transportation time, Igliozzi said, because the charter schools would be located closer to residential districts. Hope's current location forces many students to spend more than one hour riding a school bus each day, a process he said eats into valuable instruction time.
Alykhan Karim '06, who founded Students Teaching Students last year to organize tutoring efforts at Hope, agreed "it's really hard for kids to get (to school)."
A more pressing problem facing Hope is the "deplorable" lack of parental involvement, something Igliozzi said he hopes "neighborhood schools" and smaller class sizes will help address.
But Mandle said he opposed relocating Hope, calling the school's current location "an important asset to the East Side."
Mary Sylvia Harrison, a member of the Providence Educational Excellence Coalition that recommended state intervention, said smaller schools may effectively foster more "personalization" among students, teachers and parents.
But Harrison called the promotion of small schools a potentially "dangerous" strategy if they do not generate "more earnest, volitional actors" to support students.
Karim argued that the creation of "neighborhood schools" might not have a dramatic effect on parental involvement. "Location is not the only problem," he said.
Many parents in the district are first-generation immigrants, for example, and may adopt less proactive approaches to their students' education, Karim said.
"For them, it's a very different attitude," he said.
Igliozzi said he believes his plan would reduce the school's current 52 percent dropout rate. The different programs offered by three charter schools would provide students with an alternative to the current curriculum, which merely "teaches to the test," he said.
"The present curriculum isn't interesting enough for students to stay," Igliozzi said.
But Karim said closing Hope and building smaller schools might temporarily increase the dropout rate. In the short term, closing Hope would be a "bad thing" for students presently enrolled.
"You might just have a lot of kids drop out who are not that interested in going to school in the first place," he said.
In addition to educational leaders' reluctance to embrace a plan Igliozzi himself called "unconventional," the proposal also faces a legislative hurdle limiting the number of charter schools in any Rhode Island municipality to four. Providence already operates four charter schools.
But Igliozzi said he does not view this legislation as a significant problem, adding that the importance of a child's education should overcome such political obstacles.
Elliott Krieger, a spokesperson for the education department, said McWalters "supports expanding charter schools, especially in urban areas."
Brian Fong '02 GS '03, who taught at Hope during the 2003-2004 academic year, said he believes constructing charter schools would resolve space issues created by Hope's large student body.
"There's too many students crammed into a small school," he said. "All of the teachers shared rooms together, so none of us had stable homerooms to call our own. I moved through three different classrooms in the course of a day."
Having smaller schools, even if they are not charter schools, would "give students a chance to bond with their teachers," Fong said. "The smaller the school, the better they are for the students."
