Welcome to the Cumberland School Department

The Cumberland School Department is a comprehensive PK-12 public school system serving Cumberland, Rhode Island. 

The school system enrolls approximately 4,700 students in preschool, elementary, middle and high school. 

The town's five elementary schools include Bernard F. Norton School, Garvin Memorial School, Ashton School, Community School, and John J. McLaughlin Cumberland Hill School. Students in grades 6-8 attend one of two middle schools; Joseph L. McCourt Middle School (formerly Cumberland Middle School) or North Cumberland Middle School. All students in grades 9-12 attend Cumberland High School, a modern campus spread over 2.5 acres (10,000 m2) on Mendon Road/Route 122.

Over the past ten years, taxpayers have provided substantial resources to the schools through bonds to improve school facilities. Most recently these bond funds were spent on targeted improvements at Ashton School, John J. McLaughlin Cumberland Hill School and Cumberland High School.

Opened at its Mendon Road location in 1961, Cumberland High School was formally rededicated on September 27, 2008, after five years of construction and renovation. A new facility, known as the Wellness Center, was built and includes three basketball courts, an indoor track, and health and physical education rooms. Also, new music and art rooms were constructed in the location of the former gymnasium. The final phase of the renovations and additions included a new 15-classroom science and technology wing and a new servery and cafeteria that comfortably seats 600 students.

With a major cycle of facilities updates completed, the district has adopted a three-year strategic plan focused on 21st century skills for students and teachers to create equitable learning opportunities for its five thousand students. A primary emphasis of the district's Strategic Plan is a collaborative effort to design and build a Town Learning Community that will invigorate community support for the public education system. 

The Strategic Plan calls for the district to invest funds for  teacher professional development in learning styles differences, gifted education and the integration of new classroom technology in all areas of instruction. The plan also focuses on strategies to personalize learning for students through differentiated instruction, advisory programs and the district's K-12 counseling program.

Nationally recognized educational organizations are partnering with the Cumberland schools in their improvement efforts. In literacy, the district is working with the Hasbro Center for Teaching Excellence/Highlander-Dunn Institute and the HILL for Literacy and, in mathematics, the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin. The goal of the Cumberland Literacy Initiative is to raise student achievement in reading by training all elementary teachers as master teachers in literacy. The Cumberland Mathematics Initiative aims to provide a guaranteed and viable curriculum in mathematics for every student, every day, in every classroom in Cumberland, thereby raising the mathematical proficiency of all students in grades kindergarten through twelve.