Rate My Professor Sally Howell

Dr. Sally Howell is a distinguished special educator affiliated with Macquarie University, possessing over 40 years of experience in supporting children with special education needs and their families as a principal, teacher, and consultant. She earned a Master of Arts in Special Education and a PhD in Cognitive Sciences from Macquarie University, with her doctoral research centered on early number sense. Her career encompasses roles in public, independent, and Catholic schools, a community-based disability organization focused on early intervention, and senior positions including Principal Education Officer, Learning Assistance, in the NSW Department of Education's Disability Programs Directorate. From 2013 to 2023, she served as Principal of the Macquarie University Special Education Centre (MUSEC) School, implementing evidence-based teaching in literacy and numeracy, registering the school as an independent institution, establishing Individual Education Program processes, adding full-time speech and language pathologists, upgrading facilities, and leading through the pandemic. She contributed to postgraduate special education programs at Macquarie University as a lecturer, developing materials on numeracy, reading, and behavior management, and presented at national and international conferences.

Dr. Howell's research specializations include the acquisition of literacy and numeracy skills by students with disabilities or learning difficulties, and number sense as a predictor of early mathematical difficulties. Key publications are 'Understanding and supporting numeracy competence' (Howell & Hopkins, 2017), 'Assessing preschool number sense: skills demonstrated by children prior to school entry' (Howell & Kemp, 2010, Educational Psychology), 'A participatory approach to the identification of measures of number sense in children prior to school entry' (Howell & Kemp, 2009), and 'A Critique of the L3 Early Years Literacy Program' (Neilson & Howell, 2015). She has held influential roles such as President of the NSW chapter of the Australian Association of Special Education (AASE), advisor to the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) and NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) on disability curriculum and assessment, and member of NESA committees. Dr. Howell is an Honorary Research Fellow in Macquarie University's School of Psychological Sciences.