Faculty Profile for Dr. Sarah Joanne Hays

Biography Section

Biography and Education

Dr. Sarah Hays is an assistant professor of instruction in the Curriculum and Instruction Department at Texas State University. She teaches reading courses to students in the residency program and supervises student teachers. In addition, she enjoys teaching special education courses. Dr. Hays is a children's author as she has written, The Adventures of Breanna and Allyson, a story based on her daughters. She attended the University of Texas and received a bachelor’s degree in Deaf Education in 2005. Following this, she graduated from Texas State University with a master’s degree in Reading Education in 2012. Because of her love of students with special needs, Sarah completed her doctoral degree in special education at Texas Tech University in 2022. She has experience working as a classroom teacher, reading specialist, and ESL teacher. She also taught students with Dyslexia in the secondary setting and assessed individuals with special needs as an Educational Diagnostician. Dr. Hays enjoys supporting students and preparing teachers to teach reading to students of different backgrounds.

Teaching Interests

​Reading Education and assessment

Research Interests

Dr. Hays has a research focus in co-teaching approaches that are utilized in 4th-8th grade English Language Arts inclusion classrooms. She developed a study based on co-teaching and published the results in the works below:

Hays, S. J., Brendle, J., & Lock, R. (2023). The Effectiveness of Co-Teaching in Middle
School ELA Inclusion Classrooms. Texas Educator Preparation, (ISSN: 2474-
3976 online), 73-89. https://doi.org/10.59719/txep.v7i2.22.

Hays, S. (2022). Co-Teaching Experiences of 4th-8th grade English Language Arts
Teachers in the Inclusion Setting. Dissertation. Texas Tech University.