Principal Investigator

Dr. Adina Schick

Adina Schick is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Applied Psychology at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. Dr. Schick’s work to date has focused on cultural variations in children’s language, literacy, and narrative development, with a particular emphasis on the individual and combined contributions of the home and preschool contexts on these school readiness skills. Her research has probed the role of continuity in home-school book sharing practices in supporting low-income Latino Head Start children’s emergent literacy development, and highlights the importance of promoting parents’ use of culturally-relevant practices. As a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at NYU’s Child and Family Policy Center, she worked on the creation of a Common Metric to link the three most commonly used preschool assessment tools, and has helped develop and supervise the implementation of a large intervention aimed at professional development of early childhood educators throughout New York City, as well as from across New York State. Dr. Schick’s research has been funded by The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families as well as by the Brady Educational Foundation and the Brooke Astor Foundation. She received her doctorate in developmental psychology from the Department of Applied Psychology at New York University in 2012.

Dr. Schick’s Faculty Page

Team Members

Project Manager

Darby McCusker received her bachelors of science degree at NYU in 2022, studying Global Public Health and Applied Psychology. During her undergraduate career she was a research assistant for the lab, an editor of the N.Y.U. American Policy Review, and a member of the Psi Chi academic fraternity. Her research interests include, broadly, developmental psychology, public health policy, and political psychology. Darby now serves as an assistant to the faculty of a lifespan development course and is the project manager of the Home School Connections Research Team.  

Research Staff

Cassie Wuest, MA received her master’s in education and social policy, as well as her bachelor’s in applied psychology from New York University. Cassie has been a member of the  team since January 2015 and currently serves as the project manager. Previously, she worked as a research assistant for the Yale RELATE project where she conducted video observations in New York City special education classrooms. Cassie’s research interests include teacher professional development and early childhood education policy.

Volunteer Research Assistants

Nina Lanzillotta is a motivated student whose passion for education and child development has led her to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Applied Psychology at NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. As a participant in the Dean’s Global Honors program, under the guidance of Dr. Schick, Nina researched the intricate relationship between home, school, and families in Israel. This unique opportunity to see education from a global perspective has spurred Nina’s interest in education reform. As a bilingual student, she has been involved in the Home School Connections Research Team since the fall of 2022. She also serves as a Teaching Assistant in a local Manhattan public school. Her ultimate goal is to pursue a career that makes a positive impact in the education sector through reforms that cater to the diverse needs of students.

 

Jennah Abdellatif is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Applied Psychology in NYU Steinhardt with a minor in Anthropology. She plans to become a clinician using both allopathic and traditional healing mechanisms to restore mental health in patients. Jennah is part of the Home-School Connections team because she believes using her education and opportunities to better the community is of upmost importance.