'The system is broken and the Providence public schools are in crisis,' Raimondo says

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The findings of an independent review of the Providence public school system are devastating and shed a light on what’s clearly a broken system, Democratic Governor Gina Raimondo said Wednesday.

The scathing 93-page report by the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy released Tuesday night found severe dysfunction, including rampant bullying and fighting among students, crumbling facilities, and a tangled bureaucracy with no clear lines of authority. It concluded that everyone from the school district to the teachers union to the state Department of Education is failing children.

Many students don’t take school seriously enough, parents feel marginalized and demoralized and poor teachers are almost impossible to fire, according to the report.

Raimondo said Johns Hopkins staff told her it was among the worst school districts — if not the worst — they’ve ever seen.

Read more: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/rhode-island/2019/06/26/the-system-broken-and-providence-public-schools-are-crisis-raimondo-says/8KBgCmrSoVrepIhZA2oBmJ/story.html