PROVIDENCE — Hope High School will remain under the authority of state Education Commissioner Peter McWalters, a decision that is bound to please the principals and teachers at the once-troubled high school.

McWalters’ decision means that the district will not be able to tamper with the way the school is organized. Hope will continue to operate as three smaller learning academies, the school will have control over teacher recruitment and hiring and student advisory periods will be retained.

But McWalters’ new order goes even further, replacing traditional department heads at every high school in the district with teacher-leaders, who are responsible for training teachers, providing model classrooms and otherwise acting in a leadership role. Hope introduced these positions three years ago when McWalters imposed his original order for corrective action.

“The continuance of department chair positions at this time is counterproductive to achieving the new vision for all Providence high schools,” McWalters wrote in his letter to Supt. Donnie Evans. “All job specifications for these new teacher-leader positions shall be forwarded to the commissioner for approval prior to beginning the interview and selection process.”

Under state and federal law, McWalters has the authority to intervene in schools and districts that are chronically under-performing. Because more than 40 percent of its schools have been consistently low-performing, Providence is classified as a district in need of improvement, which can trigger intervention by the commissioner.

“At the time that Hope was put under state order, it was the only school that warranted such intervention,” said Mary Canole, director of the state Department of Education’s office of progressive support and intervention. “Now you have three other high schools — Mount Pleasant, Central and Feinstein — that are in restructuring.”

A school in need of restructuring means it hasn’t made annual yearly progress for six consecutive years. With those schools, the district or the state has the authority to replace the staff, place the school under private or state control or reopen it as a charter school.

Canole said it isn’t unusual for the state to review applications for positions paid for with federal money. The state Department of Education has targeted federal money to schools that are consistently under-achieving.

Canole, however, couldn’t say whether the state order will run afoul of the Providence teachers’ contract, which includes department head positions.

The new order recognizes the considerable progress that Hope has made since McWalters intervened three years ago, but says that the school has a long way to go in terms of student performance, graduation rates and attendance.

In 2005, McWalters set specific conditions for Hope because the school was beset with abysmally low test scores, a high dropout rate and significant discipline problems. Three years later, the commissioner wants to move student achievement at all of its high schools, Canole said. In other words, the district must bring the positive improvements at Hope to scale.

The challenge is how the district can boost the performance of all high schools without losing ground at Hope.

“Some of the things in the original order were implemented very successfully,” said Elliot Krieger, spokesman for the state Department of Education. “Are the results there yet? No. There are still problems with the test scores and attendance.

“There is a different need today,” he said. “What needs to be solved now has to be solved at the district level.”

“We don’t want to lose what Hope has,” Canole added. “That’s the reason the school remains under [McWalter’s] authority.”

McWalters decided to keep Hope under his authority because he said he felt that neither the school — nor the district — has the capacity to support the kinds of change that would lead to even greater success, especially in academic achievement.

“Do they have the staffing they need?” Canole said. “Do they have the budget to pull this off? We already know that they don’t have the technology they need.”

That said, Hope will no longer get a separate line item from the state. Canole said that the progressive support and intervention money will now go to the district, which presumably will have greater latitude in how the federal money is doled out.

There is one other significant change in the commissioner’s new order. Before, the district had little control over Hope’s curriculum. Now, the district will have total authority over every high school’s curriculum because Evans is moving toward a uniform curriculum for all core academic subjects, Canole said.

Hope, she said, will continue to have control over curricula for each of its three smaller theme-based academies: leadership, arts and information technology.

Reaction to the order was muted yesterday because school officials, including Evans, said they hadn’t had a chance to review the conditions, released late Tuesday.

“If it’s back to the old order, we welcome it,” said Arthur Petrosinelli, one of three principals at Hope. “We want to stay under the commissioner’s order. We’ve come a long way but we still have a long way to go.”

This winter, Steve Smith, president of the Providence Teachers Union, testified in favor of keeping Hope under the commissioner’s order. Yesterday, he said that he was pleased with the decision, although he wanted his staff to scrutinize the details.

The new order stems from a show-cause hearing that the commissioner held in February to consider whether Hope should remain under state intervention or be returned to district control.

Numerous speakers, including the school’s principals, argued that the high school was able to turn itself around precisely because of the state’s intervention order.

Staff testified that during the past three years, Hope has moved from a chaotic environment to an orderly one. Student advisory periods are beginning to build bonds between students and their teacher-advisor, individual learning plans spell out each student’s academic goals and effective partnerships have been developed with local universities and businesses.

But Evans urged McWalters to weigh the needs of one school against the needs of the district. Today, he said, the entire district, not just Hope, is listed as being in corrective action.

lborg@projo.com