Welcome Back from the
Assistant Superintendent
After having served the students and educators for these
past five years I am honored to have been named the Assistant Superintendent of
the North Reading Public Schools.
Although there are several aspects of my position that will remain the
same there are also new areas of responsibility that I will be supporting for
the 2014-15 school year.
Curriculum
As a district we will continue to implement the
Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks, including the new Common Core aligned
frameworks for Mathematics and English Language Arts. This year we will continue to explore the Next
Generation Science Standards as well as review our standards in all content
areas.
Assessment
All educators in North Reading are implementing common
formative and summative assessments to facilitate conversations about student
growth and to improve opportunities for student learning throughout the
district.
As North Reading prepares for next generation state assessments
we will administer the PARCC assessment in 2014-15. This assessment will be paper-based at the
Little and Hood schools and on computers for students at the Batchelder
school. Our Middle School students will
also take the PARCC assessment on paper.
At the high school level, students will continue to take MCAS for the 10th
grade state assessment, however our 9th grade Algebra I students
will take the PARCC assessment on paper for the first time this year.
Students who traditionally take the MCAS-Alt and Science
MCAS (5th grade, 8th grade, and Biology students) will
continue to take these MCAS tests in 2014-15.
There will be several opportunities to learn more about
these next generation assessments this year, including continued updates to the
district website.
Title 1
Title I, Part A (Title I) of the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act, as amended (ESEA) provides financial assistance to districts and
schools with high numbers or high percentages of children from low-income
families to help ensure that all children meet challenging state academic
standards.
In North Reading we provide targeted assistance to eligible
students at the Little, Hood, and Middle schools. As a district we have focused our efforts on
mathematical support and professional development for educators across the
district who are working to support our most challenging learning needs.
Professional
Development and Educator Evaluation
In 2014-15 we will continue to offer high quality
professional development for North Reading educators. Offerings will include: literacy, close
reading, writing in the content areas, mathematics, and other content area
focused professional development.
Educators will also continue to receive support in the implementation of
the new model educator evaluation system.
English Language
Learners
A new area of responsibility for 2014-15 for the Assistant
Superintendent will be English Language Learners (ELL) and the Sheltered
English Immersion (SEI) program in North Reading. The
RETELL initiative (Rethinking Equity and Teaching for English Language
Learners) as well as the SEI endorsement for educators will be the primary
focus during the 2014-15 school year in this area.
Technology and
Digital Learning
North Reading has made many strides in improving the digital
learning throughout the district. In
2014-15 we have added a new Digital Learning Coordinator
to make an impact on our students and staff. It is essential that technology and digital
learning remain interwoven with curriculum and instruction and we will continue to work closely to improve the digital learning experience for
all of our students.
As always I invite anyone in the school community to contact
me at any time with questions or information at pdaly@north-reading.k12.ma.us
or 978-664-9557. I look forward to this
great opportunity to continue to serve the students and staff of North Reading.
