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One of the hallmarks of San Francisco State University’s 100- year history has been the University’s residence at the frontier of educational innovation. From President Frederic Lister Burk’s radical theories to President J. Paul Leonard’s reorganization of the general education program to today’s emphasis on service learning, SFSU has consistently occupied the very edge of educational reform. Today, Marci Hanson, professor of special education, continues that tradition with her pioneering work in the creation of the Early Childhood Special Education Program.Return to topHanson started the program in 1982 as an effort to emphasize the critical early
years of childhood development. The program offers training for instructors to increase their effectiveness in teaching young children with disabilities. Over the past 17 years the program has evolved to include a master’s degree, a CSU certificate program, and a new credential program. Today, the Early Childhood Special Education Program attracts a diverse group of students who use the skills they develop to follow many pat hs. Some are already teachers and want to learn the latest techniques to better help their young students; others are hoping to continue in research, and all are post-baccalaureate students.Hanson looks back with pride at what the program has been able to accomplish. Early childhood special education was barely a field when she started the program. She came to SFSU in 1979, a year after receiving her Ph.D. in special education from the University of Oregon, Eugene, and working in Princeton, New Jersey at a think-tank on infant research for the Educational Testing Service. Upon arrival at the University, she immediately recognized its advantages: teaching, research, and service in the commu nity. "S.F. State," she says, "is definitely the real world." Her efforts since then have helped to make SFSU a national leader in early child-hood special education while the program has attracted millions of dollars in grants from the federal government and other agencies.
The Early Childhood Special Education Program has reached well beyond campus. The program established a city-wide partnership with the San Francisco Unified School District to establish and implement an early intervention program for infants and toddlers. Working with the National Early Childhood Research Institute, the program focuses on how to expand pre-school inclusion of special education students into settings for typically developing children. A major trend for the program is educating young chil dren with disabilities in the context of their families both for appreciating cultural diversity and for providing family services.
These alliances demonstrate the esteem the early childhood program is held in and how the program complements its training and teaching missions with research breakthroughs. Hanson is optimistic about the program’s future. "We’re out there and involved in the community," she says. And that involvement carries on the traditions that make up the essence of San Francisco State.
--Edward Wilkinson
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