Office of the Assistant Superintendent, Curriculum and Instruction
todd Winch, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum & Instruction
Mr. Winch joined the Plainedge School District in August 2011. Mr. Winch is the former Director of Pupil Services for the Levittown School District where he held a variety of positions for 16 years. He began his career as a social studies teacher, in 2004 he was appointed the Chairperson of the Social Studies Department for the Middle School. In 2006 he became the Assistant Director of Pupil Services. By 2009 he was appointed the Director of Pupil Services and was responsible for the Alternative High School, AIS and ESL programs, Universal Pre-K, Guidance Department, Section 504, State testing and reporting, Social Workers, Data warehousing, Drug and Alcohol programming, School Safety Planning (SAVE), Student Registration and Grants. Mr. Winch received his Bachelors degree, Masters degree and Advanced Certificate in School District Administration from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
The office of the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction is responsible for ensuring the best possible education for the students of the Plainedge School District. The Assistant Superintendent oversees the academic disciplines and special areas, and works with building principals and the district directors to constantly strive towards improving our instructional program.
The Assistant Superintendent is also responsible for state and local assessments, academic intervention services (AIS), English as a Second Language and our Response to Intervention program. He is also responsible for providing professional development opportunities for our professional teaching staff and others through workshops and conferences, as well as working closely with our Plainedge Teacher’s Center.
Classroom instruction in each curriculum area is guided by the New York State Learning Standards. These standards articulate the skills and knowledge students need in order to become college and career ready.
Latest News from the Office of Instruction
Common Core State Standards:
On January 10th, 2011, the Board of Regents approved the recommended additions to the Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS) for English Language Arts & Literacy and Common Core Learning Standards for Mathematics, plus a new set of Prekindergarten Standards. Nearly all states have adopted the CCLS in an effort to ensure that all students are College and Career Ready.
Specific Information for Parents:
New York State Department of Education website on Common Core Standards
This site contains links for the actual state standards in ELA and Mathematics. For more information, go to: http://www.p12.nysed.gov/ciai/common_core_standards/
PTA Information on Common Core: The PTA has created a Parents’ Guide to Student Success (listed below in English and Spanish), which was developed in response to the Common Core State Standards in English language arts and mathematics that more than 40 states have adopted. For more information, go to http://pta.org/common_core_state_standards.asp
Specific Information for Teachers:
CommonCore.org: Established in 2007, Common Core is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization formed to promote content-rich liberal arts education in America’s K–12 schools. Common Core believes that a child who graduates from high school without an understanding of culture, the arts, history, literature, civics, and language has in fact been left behind. To improve education in America, Common Core creates curriculum tools and also promotes programs, policies, and initiatives at the local, state, and federal levels that provide students with challenging, rigorous instruction in the full range of liberal arts and sciences. For information, as well as free curriculum maps, go to http://commoncore.org/free/
InsideMathematics: Inside Mathematics has worked closely with mathematics education leaders involved in the creation of the national Common Core State Standards for Mathematics to align the resources of their site with the national standards for mathematical practice. For more information, go to: http://www.insidemathematics.org/index.php/common-core-standards
NYC “See Student Work”: This page has links to sample Common Core aligned lessons in grades K-12. For more information, go to http://schools.nyc.gov/Academics/CommonCoreLibrary/SeeStudentWork/default.htm
EngageNY.org: NYS has created this site as a central repository for all things related to Common Core, Race to the Top and APPR. This site includes lesson plan exemplars. For more information, go to: www.engageny.org
Common Core State Standards Initiative: This is the website of the Common Core State Standards Initiative. It includes a variety of resources related to the Common Core. For more information, go to: http://www.corestandards.org/resources
New Reading Program in all Elementary Schools
We are pleased to have introduced our new ELA series in grades K-5, Journeys. For more information on Journeys please go to: http://www.hmheducation.com/journeys/index.php
Response to Intervention Program in Pilot Year
The district has been working on our K-6 Response to Intervention model since last year. In 2011, we began our pilot year in which all students in grades K-6 take a benchmark assessment in math and reading three times a year. Data is used to determine growth, and provide additional information related to interventions and support. Our district used AIMSWEB as our assessment program. For more information on AIMSWEB, please go to: www.aimsweb.com
Information for Parents: NYS has released a Parent’s Guide to Response to Intervention: http://www.p12.nysed.gov/specialed/RTI/rti-pamphlet.pdf
New York State Testing Program
Each year, students in grades 3-8 are tested in English language arts and mathematics. For additional information on these assessments, please click here.
Please be sure to look at the links on the left for additional, more specific information related to district curriculum and instruction. Also check the website of the specific school your child goes to for additional resources.
Plainedge Teacher Center Parent University
On October 4th, the Plainedge Teacher Center was proud to present Parent University, an evening filled with parent workshops focused on dealing with the challenges our students face in the world today. Workshops included presentations on the Common Core State Standards, Bullying & Cyberbullying, Study Skills and Organizational Skills, and Keeping Children Safe in a Digital World. If you were unable to attend but would like the materials handed out, please contact us at 516-992-7460.