Curriculum & Instruction, Long Island University, CW Post Campus, School of Education

Joseph M. Piro

Dr. Joseph Piro is presently an Associate Professor at the College of Education and Information Sciences at Long Island University- Post. He is a member of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction as well as the faculty of the Doctoral Program in Interdisciplinary Educational Studies where he teaches courses in educational psychology and education policy. He is also the (Interim) Director of the Long Island University Center for Gifted Youth. His research focuses on the impact of the arts and humanities on learning, psychology of gifted children, and issues in brain and learning behavior. Prior to his work at LIU, he served in a variety of capacities in the New York City Department of Education including coordinating a district-wide gifted and talented program and a cultural arts program. For several years, he served on the New York State AGATE (Advocacy for Gifted and Talented Education) Board of Directors and was also a member of an Advisory Committee for the New York State Education Department that worked to establish teacher certification guidelines for teachers of the gifted. 

He has received fellowships and awards from the Japan Foundation to study Japan’s educational system, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Gilder-Lehrman Foundation, the Getty Center, and the Fulbright Program to develop curriculum and teacher training projects in the humanities and social sciences. He is also the originator of The Rembrandt Project, the recipient of an NEH Curriculum Materials grant, which funded a technology project on the life and art of Rembrandt. 

He received his PhD from Columbia University where his research focused on learning behaviors of musically and mathematically gifted students.