LEWISTON — Sue Martin, who became Lewiston School Department’s first English Language Learner director, will become its first chief academic officer on July 1.

A chief academic officer is “one whose overriding responsibilities relates to how we instruct, how we assess, and what we teach in the classroom,” Lewiston Superintendent Bill Webster said Tuesday.

The position is the result of restructuring a few of the district’s top jobs, Webster said. Curriculum Director Janice Plourde is retiring in June. Martin will take over her work plus extra duties.

Plourde’s responsibilities did not include English Language Learners or special education. “Sue will have those responsibilities,” Webster said.

Lewiston schools have many challenges and opportunities in curriculum assessment and instruction, Webster said. Test scores at several schools are below the state average, something Webster would like to improve.

In the ELL program, Martin demonstrated success in establishing an integrated program for all Lewiston schools. “We need to do that same thing in our regular instruction,” Webster said.

He explained that some elementary classrooms see a 50 percent turnover of students in a year. “There is no coordination of curriculum, so a student going from one school to another might have exposure” to the same math lessons twice, or not get other math lessons at all.

“We need a greater consistency of what our elementary students had when they arrive at seventh grade,” Webster said.

He called Martin “data driven,” and said she uses data to recognize needed changes. “In the end we might have most excellent lessons, but if the student is not learning from it, we need to change course,” he said.

Martin’s educational experience includes being a second- and third-grade teacher in Bowdoin, the principal at Lewiston’s Farwell Elementary School, the adult education director in Topsham, and teacher for undergraduates to become teachers at the University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn College.

Before being named ELL director in 2007, Martin was director of Service Learning at Bates College Harward Center for Community Partnerships.

In charge of Lewiston’s ELL program, she brought the program from its infancy to the level it is today, serving more than 1,000 students, Webster said. “It’s well recognized as a successful program, he said. “We’re now seeing students who came up through ELL go to the finest colleges and universities.”

Martin lives in Auburn. She graduated from the University of Maine in Orono, the University of Southern Maine, and did graduate work in administration, curriculum, educational research and English language learners.

Her annual salary will be $90,000.