Dawn Manaster Levy

Dawn Manaster Levy is an Evaluation Coordinator for Southern Methodist University’s Center on Research and Evaluation (CORE). Dawn has coordinated and participated in several research and evaluation projects in the Simmons School of Education and Human Development since 2005. Throughout her career, Dawn’s primary focus has been reading research. Since joining CORE in 2016 she has focused her work on evaluation projects in educational environments. These projects include assessing the environmental quality of prekindergarten classrooms, evaluating a parental engagement program which aims to connect schools and parents, and to assess the educational growth of high-needs students.

While working on earning her Master’s in Education at SMU, Dawn worked on the Project Maximize research team which examined methods for teaching reading to students with severe reading difficulties including students with intellectual disabilities and autism. After graduating, Dawn served in multiple roles on a variety of research projects including Project Coordinator on Project Scale Up which investigated the processes involved with implementing research-validated first-grade reading interventions on a wide scale. For several years Dawn has been the Instructional Coach on the IES development grant Project Intensity which is developing a supplemental literacy program for students with Intellectual Disabilities. Dawn was Lead Interventionist on the IES efficacy study, Passport to Literacy which is examining the effectiveness of the Voyager Passport Intervention for fourth-grade students who have, or are at high risk, for reading disabilities.

Dawn’s principal interests include early childhood education specifically early literacy interventions and reading interventions for children with intellectual disabilities. After earning her undergraduate degrees from The University of Texas at Austin, Dawn taught elementary education for nine years in Texas public and private schools. She is motivated to explore and create optimum educational situations for students and educators.

Presentations and Publications

Presenter: A University-Education Agency Partnership: Utilizing CLASS ® to Improve Early Childhood Quality, InterAct CLASS Summit, April 2017

Al Otaiba, S., Jones, F., Levy, D., Rivas, B., & Wanzek, J. (2018). Building a growth mindset within data-based individualization: A case study of two students with reading disabilities learning to learn. In Pullen, P.C., & Kennedy, M. J.. Handbook of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support and Response to Intervention (Eds.) (249-265). New York, Routledge

Jones, F. G., Gifford, D., Yovanoff, P., Al Otaiba, S., Levy, D., & Allor, J. (2018). Alternate Assessment Formats for Progress Monitoring Students with Intellectual Disabilities and Below Average IQ: An Exploratory Study. Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 1088357618762749.

Allor, J. H., Al Otaiba, S., Yovanoff, P., Cheatham, J., Gifford, D., Levy, D., Ortiz, M., Sandoval,
A. & Jones, F. (July, 2015). The Effects of a Text-Centered Supplemental Curriculum for Students with Intellectual Disabilities. Annual Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, Kona, HI.