Deputy Education Commissioner Visits Sachem

Yesterday the Sachem School District received a visit from the Deputy Commissioner of the New York State Education Department, Ken Slentz.

Slentz is on a Long Island tour of schools still implementing adjustments and initiatives brought on by New York's adoption of the Common Core Curriculum. In a report drafted by Sachem's communications director Chris Vaccaro on The Sachem Report, Slentz paid a visit to Christine Marino's sixth grade ELA class at Seneca. From the piece:

Mr. Slentz said the practices that he saw in the classroom in Seneca were very much in line with the shifts that the common core requires.

“The leadership that is shown by the principals and superintendents are really pushing this work forward,” said Mr. Slentz, whose visit to Long Island also included a stop in Deer Park, Connetquot and Eastern Suffolk BOCES. “Clearly it’s getting into the classroom and it’s working. I have confidence they’ll bring the district forward.”

Sachem Superintendent James Nolan was very excited to have Mr. Slentz at Sachem.

“We wish he could have been with us longer to see the rest of our district, but Seneca did a tremendous job at representing Sachem,” Mr. Nolan siad. “We invite the state to come back and spend some time with us again.”

Mr. Nolan is also very pleased with how his staff and personnel has adapted to the changes in the common core.

“It’s a different way of teaching and learning,” he said. “Our teachers and administrators have gone above and beyond to stay ahead of the curve to be creative and it showed today. Kids are learning in greater depth and are learning to be able to explain what they learned.”

The Common Core Curriculum Standards are a national push to insert a degree of consistency in how teachers present material, and what students should be expected to do once they've mastered the material. The state's adoption of the Common Core has been at the center of much debate among educational experts.