Welcome Back from the Assistant Superintendent

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 10^th grade state assessment, however our 9^th 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 (5^th grade, 8^th 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.