Gail Verdi, Ph.D.

New York University, Ph.D. in English Education, Applied Linguistics (with distinction) -September 2000

Dissertation: Navigating Languages and Cultures: An Ethnographic Study of Four Working- Class Women Academics                                                

M.A., TESOL K-12, 1983, Seton Hall University 

B.A., Elementary Education/Early Childhood (NJ State Certification),1979

Gail Verdi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of Kean University's School of Curriculum and Teaching, Associate Professor in the Department of Elementary, Middle and Secondary Education, and Coordinator of Kean's Graduate TESOL Program. Her research interests include literacy development, process writing, urban education, second language education, and the influence second languages and dialects have on student success. She has presented on these topics at local, national, and international conferences. She has taught elementary and early childhood ESL; composition at CUNY and NYU's Expository Writing Program as well as general education courses, language arts, and second language acquisition courses at both the graduate and undergraduate level. Verdi was an Executive Board Member of NJTESOL/NJBE and chair of NJTESOL/NJBE’s Graduate Student Forum from 2009-2012, a member of the New Jersey DOE State Program Approval Council (NJSPAC) from 2017-2020, and the NJDOE Teacher Leader Forum to 2020.  She continues to serve on NABE's Research and Assessment Forum and Dissertation Awards Committee, NABE’s Research and Assessment Executive Board and was recently invited to serve on NSF Education Grant Advisory Board 2020-2022, “Embedding Equitable: Design through Undergraduate Computing Curricula.”  She was the Lead Faculty member of the Building Teacher Leader Capacity Grant from 2015-2018 and Co-Pi (with Mayra Bachrach and Patricia Morreale) on Kean's 2019-2020 Google Grant titled, "Improving the Outcomes of Hispanics in AP Computer Science". Her most recent publication is “Pedagogical Interventions to Improve the Outcomes of Hispanics in AP Computer Science” (with Bachrach, M., & Morreale, P. Proceedings of the 26th ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education.  V1. June 2021, pp. 401-407, doi.org/10.1145/3430665.3456309.  Dr. Verdi received a Ph.D. in English Ed/Applied Linguistics and an M.A. in TESOL from NYU. She also has a B.A. in Elementary Education/Early Childhood from Seton Hall.

• Second Language Acquisition
• Second Language Education
• Literacy Development
• Working-Class Studies
• Literacy Development
• Writing in the Content Areas

• TESL 5404 - Culture, Cognition and Communication
• EMSE 5315 - Introduction to Language Arts and Reading through the Content Areas
• EMSE 4900 - Senior Seminar Capstone Course – Elementary and Middle School Education
• EMSE 2800 - Clinical Experience in Diverse Inclusive Classrooms

As an English educator, my primary concern is with the ways in which language mediates learning and school success. The questions that arise out of this proposition have influenced both the theories I have embraced and the teaching practices I use to engage students. Feminist thinking, reflective practice, constructivist theory and critical pedagogy all sit comfortably within the framework I have built to support my philosophy of teaching and learning.

Improving the Outcomes of Hispanics in AP Computer Science (with Mayra. Bachrach and Patricia. Morreale) – (2019-2020).  Mountain View, CA: Google Grant.

Building Teacher Leaders Capacity to Support Beginning Teachers (with Anthony Pittman) – (June 2015-2018). Trenton, NJ: NJDOE.

“Pedagogical Interventions to Improve the Outcomes of Hispanics in AP Computer Science” (with Bachrach, M., & Morreale, P. Proceedings of the 26th ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education.  V1. June 2021, pp. 401-407, doi.org/10.1145/3430665.3456309.

“Exploration of Pedagogical Interventions to Improve the Outcomes of Hispanics in AP Computer Science” (with Bachrach, M. & Morreale, P.). 2020 IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference (ISEC), Princeton, NJ, USA, 2020, pp. 1-4, doi: 10.1109/ISEC49744.2020.9280603.

“Improving the Outcomes of Hispanics in AP Computer Science” (with Bachrach, M. & Morreale, P.). Proceedings of the 51st ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education.  Association for Computing Machinery. New York, NY, March 2020.

“Literacy Development as Social Practice in the Lives of Four Working-Class Women Academics.” (with Miriam Eisenstein Ebsworth).  In W.H. Thelin & G.M. Carter, (Eds.), Class in the Composition Classroom: Pedagogy and the Working Class. Utah State University Press, October 2017.

“From Compliance to Efficacy: Utilizing Socio-Emotional Wellness Training to Support Teacher Leaders,” (with A. Pittman, S. McGowan & M. Toto).  Proceedings of Inaugural Educational Thought Leader Conference, Union, NJ: Kean University, May 2017).

“Exploration of Pedagogical Interventions to Improve the Outcomes of Hispanics in AP Computer Science” (with Bachrach, M. & Morreale, P.).  50th Annual NABE Conference: Research and Evaluation Institute. April 29, 2021.  

“Broadening Participation in Computer Science through Sheltered Instruction Pedagogy” (with Bachrach, M. & Morreale, P.).  IEEE.ISEC Integrated STEM Conference (Virtual).  March 13, 2021.

“Improving the Outcomes of Hispanics in AP Computer Science” (with Bachrach, M. & Morreale, P.). 51st ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE). Portland, OR, March 12, 2020. 

“Improving the Outcomes of Hispanics in AP Computer Science” (with Bachrach, M.).  49th Annual Association of Bilingual Education Conference, NABE Research and Evaluation SIG.  Las Vegas, NV, February 2020. 

“Building Teacher Leader Capacity through Emotional Wellness Training” (with Pittman, A.). NABE Research and Evaluation SIG. Lake Buena Vista, Florida, March 2019.