Helen Maniates

Helen Maniates, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Teacher Education and coordinator of the Master of Arts of Teaching Reading Program in the School of Education at the University of San Francisco. She served as head teacher and education coordinator at Mission Head Start in San Francisco and Marin Head Start, as well as instructional coach in High/Scope and Reggio Emilia approaches to early childhood education in San Francisco Bay Area school districts. Projects with the San Francisco Unified School District include working on the Preschool-Grade Three Initiative (PK-3) to create a smooth transition between preschool and elementary programs, coaching Transitional Kindergarten teachers, and organizing teacher education candidates to assess four year-olds on the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS) in English and in Spanish. Her research investigates classroom teaching to uncover practices that extend access, increase outcomes, and operationalize social justice principles in early childhood programs and elementary grades.