Jaime Puccioni

Jaime Puccioni received a dual PhD in Educational Policy and Curriculum, Instruction, and Teacher Education with an emphasis in language and literacy from Michigan State University in 2012. Prior to joining the faculty at University at Albany, she was a postdoctoral research associate at Michigan State, funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Puccioni’s research examines the ways in which family and classroom contexts influence children’s educational opportunities and development, with a particular focus on language and literacy. She is particularly interested in understanding how individual’s values and beliefs shape their behaviors. Her dissertation, which was supported by the King-Chavez-Parks Future Faculty Fellowship, drew on data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – Kindergarten cohort to estimate latent growth curves to examine the associations among parents’ school readiness beliefs, practices, and children’s academic achievement from kindergarten through first grade.

Dr. Puccioni is currently working on several research studies involving analyses of data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – Birth cohort. One project examines the relationship among beliefs about school readiness, home and school-based parental involvement, and children’s academic achievement during the transition to kindergarten. The other project, which is supported by a $180,000 3-year grant from the Foundation for Child Development, examines the direct and indirect effects of preschool teachers’ outreach efforts on children’s academic and social-emotional outcomes during the transition to elementary school, while simultaneously examining if children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds benefit more from preschool teachers’ outreach efforts by way of increased parental involvement.

Prior to completing her doctorate, Jaime was a middle school teacher in Los Angeles, a literacy content coach, and member of the school leadership team. She taught a variety of teacher education courses in the areas of content area literacy methods, social studies methods, and advanced instructional methods for elementary and secondary educators. She currently teaches
ERDG 677 Data Based Decision Making in Literacy Assessment, Policy, and Practice; and ERDG 657 Literacy for English Language Learners.