Mary Ann Snider, Rhode Island’s deputy commissioner of education, visited Cranston on Jan. 16, filling in for Education Commissioner Dr. Ken Wagner.

A public meeting was held with Snider in the Media Center at Cranston High School East. In attendance were several members of the Cranston Public Schools central administration, along with building administrators, teachers and parents.

Superintendent Jeannine Nota-Masse introduced Snider, who is retiring in June, and spoke highly of her support for the city’s schools.

“Mary Ann has been a great resource for districts and for our educators,” the superintendent said. “She’s got a very real awareness of our jobs and of what our families face.”

Nota-Masse said there was no set agenda for the meeting, an Snider hoped to address topics that were important to those who were present.

”I think it’s a better discussion when there is a mix of both parents and people who are working in the district,” Snider said.

The deputy commissioner spoke about education efforts on the state level, including work on regulations for pathways programs at the high school level. Those programs are designed to allow students to pursue individual interests in a more intensive way.

“They’re still accountable for a breadth of content, but the pathways allow for a deeper exploration and the students can earn a pathways endorsement from it,” she said. “I spent today talking with a group of high school employees at lunchtime about this, and I’ve spoken with high school students and with recent graduates, and they’re excited about the changes in our system.”

Nota-Masse said although the Cranston Area Career and Technical Center (CACTC) is housed on the Cranston High School West campus, it can be difficult to convey the nature of modern career and technical education, or CTE, to some in the community.

“The older generations think of the old definition, when CTE was for kids who weren’t going to college, and they remember when career and technical education was [vocational] school, whereas now its important for parents to realize that with the changes in regulations, all students have the opportunity to pursue opportunities they didn’t have 10 years ago,” she said.

Nota-Masse said there are 11 pathways programs on the Cranston High School West campus and two based at Cranston East. Participating students have the chance to earn free college credits, she said.

“We’re proud of the work we’ve done in Cranston … The programs have gotten very competitive in the past few years, and parents need to realize that a pathway is not a track,” she said.

In response to a parent’s question, Snider briefly addressed the recent RICAS test scores, describing them as a call to action.

“We’ve been talking a lot recently about teaching and learning and having strong foundations in reading and writing and math,” she said. “We know that having a high-quality curriculum really matters. We need to do the core work so that our kids are reading proficiently, writing well, and doing math so that they can explore things like robotics in high school and do well.”

In addressing some of the parent concerns surrounding the RICAS results and the school accountability reports that came out after those scores, Nota-Masse said individual schools should be addressing both the school level either through a parent organization meeting or another gathering for parents. It was asked by a parent that the information be dispersed to parents in multiple languages.

Assistant Superintendent Norma Cole also addressed some of the parent concerns surrounding the RICAS scores. She said the district is reviewing test questions to identify areas of weakness. That information is being compiled now and will be shared soon, she said.

Another parent asked for additional support from the Rhode Island Department of Education and the community to help close achievement gaps for student groups such as English Language Learners.

Snider said Neil Steinberg of the Rhode Island Foundation is in the process of assembling a group of parents, teachers and community partners to develop a plan of action similar to what Massachusetts had done in the 1990s to help support the school districts.

“We’re going to have to be making choices and tough decisions,” she said. “We need to keep our eye on the prize, and if we’re serious about RICAS scores we need to keep focused.”

When a question was asked about the strength of Cumberland’s scores, Snider said Cumberland started working five or six years ago to change its culture and grading policies. Those schools focused on curriculum and instructional strategies while connecting professional development to instructional strategies.

“We’re looking to see what works there, and how we can share that across the state,” she said.

Snider also addressed the shifts in standardized testing Rhode Island has seen over the years.

“Testing is expensive,” she said. “Massachusetts spends $70 million a year on MCAS. In Rhode Island, we often look for testing partners to share in the cost, which keeps the costs down. When we adopted the Common Core and then PARCC, we couldn’t afford to keep testing with PARCC because states were pulling out of that test. So, we talked to Massachusetts, who was willing to let us buy their test.”

She also said the state is committed to keeping the RICAS.

“It’s demoralizing the way the state and the press compare us to Massachusetts when we are at least 20 years behind them,” said Isa Tejada, Cranston East’s dean of students. “It’s unfair to put all the pressure on educators. It needs to be a long-term process.

Snider agreed.

“We do need to have shared responsibility and make this a collective effort,” she said.

Snider emphasized that standards have not changed since the Common Core State Standards were implemented in Rhode Island in 2010. Cole said Cranston elementary report cards are standards-based in coordination with the CCSS.

“Right now, everyone is talking about RICAS,” Snider said. “But we get distracted easily. I challenge you to keep at this, to keep that focus. It can’t just be about test scores. It all has to be a focus, and it’s not just the teachers’ job. It’s the students’ job, the families’ job. We need to be all in. Over multiple years we often have taken the easier choice. We need to have commitment and persistence and work really hard. We need to make difficult choices and we need to keep at it.”

Cranston East Principal Sean Kelly thanked Snider for her expression of the state’s commitment to education.

“I’ve got a building and I’ve got kids and teachers, and I’ve got frustration because this is my 13th year and this is my fourth state test,” he said. “The results come out and I stand in front of the faculty and I tell them we need to buckle down. We do that, we show improvement, and then the test changes. I’m excited to hear that were in this for the long haul. I’m excited to know that were committed.”