Middle Country superintendent’s team outlines social studies, world language and bilingual expansions

Amy Pacifico, presenting on behalf of the district's social studies, world language and English-as-a-new-language departments, gave an overview of curriculum priorities and data tied to New York State's Portrait of a Graduate.

Pacifico said the district's June 2025 passing rate for Global History exceeded the county and cited improvements in AP mean scores across world history, U.S. history and government & politics. She identified targeted instructional needs — for example, geographic context and constructed response work in Global History — and described departmental strategies to address them through professional development and instruction aligned to research-based practices.

On world languages, Pacifico highlighted strong FLACS performance and the district's dual-enrollment partnership with Suffolk Community College. She announced the district plans to implement the New York State Seal of Biliteracy beginning with the Class of 2029 and said a planning committee will convene in early winter to create a timeline and review assessments required for the seal.

Pacifico also described planned expansions to English-as-a-New-Language services. Citing NYSED Part 154 regulations, she explained that districts must implement bilingual programming when they have 20 or more students of the same home language at a grade level; the district plans to add home language arts courses and a transitional bilingual program beginning in kindergarten and expand home language arts at the secondary level. Pacifico said the district receives a yearly ENL grant allocation to fund supplemental services such as academic support sessions and translation.

The presentation emphasized building students' civic readiness through capstone research and National History Day programs and said the district will continue aligning curriculum, assessments and professional development to support the Portrait of a Graduate outcomes.