Long Beach Schools Welcome New Administrators

The Long Beach School District welcomed two new administrators this month, one a new hire and one a teacher promoted to a new position.

Dr. Ayesha McArthur joined the district as interim assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. She officially began her new role on Oct. 9. McArthur comes to Long Beach from Maryland, where she honed her administrative experience as an elementary school principal since 2007. But she began her education career on Long Island.

In Maryland, McArthur was principal of Greencastle Elementary School, prior to which she was principal of Twin Ridge Elementary School and Hillcrest Elementary School. Before that, she held a principal’s post at Claxton Elementary School in North Carolina, and earlier was an assistant principal at Caroline G. Atkinson Intermediate School in Freeport and a supervisor of middle level instruction in the Uniondale Schools. She began her career in education as a teacher.

During her time as a principal, McArthur was heavily involved in curriculum, instruction and assessment. She evaluated programs and made recommendations for improvement, led implementation of new curricula, developed mentoring and outreach programs, created professional development opportunities, fostered relationships with community organizations and trained teachers, among many other responsibilities.

New to her administrative position, but not to the district, is longtime teacher Dr. Lorraine Radice, who has taken on the role of director of elementary curriculum, instruction and assessment. She was a teacher in the district for 10 years before this appointment, which was made in September, and has been strongly committed to teacher professional development in Long Beach and many learning initiatives, particularly those involving literacy.

Radice has taught English Language Arts/ENL, Activities Promoting Thinking (enrichment) and science at Long Beach Middle School and also served as a literacy specialist for grades 6-8. As a member of the district’s Literacy Task Force, she has collaborated with administrators, teachers and coaches on efforts to promote literacy culture across the district. She helped to coordinate a district-level narrative writing project as well as the middle school’s annual book talk and wrote curriculum for the sixth-grade literacy course. She has taught the ENL summer school program, ENL Content and Language Support programs after school, Summer Language Enrichment Program for English Language Learners in grades 6-12 and summer school for high school juniors.

In addition to her teaching responsibilities, Radice served as coordinator of the new teacher mentor program, led a committee that contributed toward the No Place For Hate initiative, served as a grade 6 team leader and led numerous district-wide professional development workshops as a staff developer with the Long Beach Teacher Center. She coached Odyssey of the Mind teams for five years and led groups to attain Long Island regional championship status for several years.

Radice also shares her literacy expertise as an adjunct professor at Hofstra University, where she earned both her Ph.D. and Master of Science Education degree in Literacy Studies. She teaches courses in the Department of Specialized Programs in Education, specifically Literacy Studies. She has presented at national conferences, including National Council of Teachers of English and Whole Language Umbrella, as well as various Hofstra University forums, including the Literature and Imagination Conference and the student chapter of ASCD.

Dr. Ayesha McArthur, left, and Dr. Lorraine Radice. Photos courtesy Long Beach School District.