TRANSCRIPT:
Luis Hernandez: Superintendent Montañez, it’s such a pleasure to speak with you again. How are you doing?
Javier Montañez: Fabulous. Thank you for having me on your show today. Thank you.
Hernandez: Lots to talk about, but let me get started with the star ratings that the Rhode Island Department of Education released earlier this year. Overall data for 2022-23 showed most schools in the state remain stagnant. Classical High School in Providence dropped. It was four stars; now two. In Providence, only one school was above four stars, if I’m not mistaken, but most were two or one. Okay. How do you view this information, this data?
Montañez: Let’s take a step back when we look at the rating. I just want to make sure that everybody’s aware that you may have seen Classical High School is currently rating as a two star school. But clearly on the RIDE report card it shows that they continue to be doing great in many, many of the other areas and excellent areas. When you look at the rating, you can have fours and fives all the way through, and they report on the lowest rating that you may have received out of the seven areas.
So, you know, we look at that and say, okay, so what are some of the issues? But we are looking at the one target area that one target area that we have to focus on is our MLL students who are at Classical at the moment.
Some of our schools are one star schools, but even within that there are so many schools that have made growth. But it’s just looking at, where is that one position that they need more attention {with}.
Hernandez: So I want to understand then how the STAR system works because if you’re telling me that the schools are doing well in all these areas, but {there’s} one that needs attention, I have to question, how does that STAR system work? How is it rating them so low if it’s just one thing?
Montañez: It was designed to highlight the area of improvement. Where it says, okay, we’re going to highlight this one area that you really need to work on or these two areas that you really need to work on so that the school can get their five stars or four stars or three stars as they continue to grow.
Hernandez: You’re telling me that a lot of schools are doing well, but let’s focus on the English proficiency. How many kids are coming into the system that we know of that are struggling with or unable to speak English?
Montañez: So understand, right now about 40 percent of our district students are MLL students. We have helped over 500 of our teachers get MLL certified, bilingual or dual language or ESL certification. We’ve helped those teachers financially. We pay for almost 500 teachers to get the certification because when we’re educating our students and we’re using MLL strategies for students, good teaching is good teaching for all. So these teachers are getting strategies and techniques to work with MLL students, but all students have gains and, and use the strategies they’re being taught.
Hernandez: I’m trying to get a sense of how big of a struggle is it for these kids? Do they have any English speaking skills or where are they at? And how long does it take them to get them to proficiency just to be able to do basic math, basic English, basic science?
Montañez: Let’s not confuse the English language skills with their abilities. That’s two separate things.
Now what we’re looking at is when we work with our students – MLL students – they come in and it’s called the access test. They’re supposed to score a certain percent, which I think it’s 4.9, before they’re able to exit the MLL category. If the students come in early on, they track it and they should be out by {achieving} certain grades. So if they come in in kindergarten, hopefully they’ll be out by third grade. We have to look at where they’re coming in. We’re looking at what strategies or what proficiency level they’re in. So to exit the MLL on the assessment test, they have to score at least a 4.9.
Hernandez: Another issue that’s come up, not just from this past report, but going back to numerous other reports from last year, and really we’ve known this for a couple of years now; absenteeism. And this isn’t unique to Rhode Island. This is a national problem since the pandemic. But what do you find is the biggest reason why kids aren’t coming back to school? What is the biggest reason for the high absenteeism?
Montañez: There are many reasons why the students don’t come back to school. Some students have to work. Some of our students are working at night and trying to get to school in the morning, so we have to see how we can support those students, whether it’s having extended days or having school at night for them or Saturday classes. We’re also looking at some students who have to take care of their siblings and bring them to school while their parents are at work. Transportation, how do we help them with transportation? If it’s about taking care of siblings, how do we support in that area?
But what I can say is that as of right now, we have seen an 18.1% reduction in chronic absenteeism compared to this same time last year. So we’re making gains in that area as well. We want to make sure that we’re constantly reminding our parents and students of the importance of being in school. It is important to be in school.
How do we support our parents? One of the things that we do is we have a compact for parents to sign who are promising that they are really working on attendance. We want to look at that. We also have the magnetic calendars that we’ve given our parents to make sure that they can track the student’s absences so when we’re having these conversations, they have one at home on their refrigerator. They can mark how many days the student has been absent.
Hernandez: Look, you’ve been criticized for being a very optimistic guy sometimes. You’ve heard people say, yeah, we’ve made some gains, but come on. They’re not big enough gains. There’s still a lot more to go.
Montañez: When that comes across, I have to always keep focus on my nucleus and my nucleus is always students. I need to be the cheerleader for my teachers, my students, my parents, my community, my district.
Hernandez: Let me move over to the other big topic, which is the state takeover of the Providence School District. That’s about to end soon, right?
Montañez: My understanding is that the city has put together a team to see how the transition can go back to city control and how that takes place. But before we do any of that, we have to make sure that we have the systems and structures in place so when the transition happens and it goes back to the city that we are on the right track and continue to be on the right track.
Hernandez: You personally, though, as the superintendent; I’m just wondering how you’re preparing for that day.
Montañez: That’s a decision that comes back to the state and the city, how that’s going to happen. We do not want to go backwards. We want to continue to develop and grow on the successes that we’ve had so far.
Hernandez: Superintendent Javier Montañez, it’s always a pleasure. I always like talking to you, man. I appreciate the insight.
Montañez: Oh, it’s always a pleasure. Thank you once again for having me on with you today.
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