NCCRESt

part of the Education Reform Networks

Paraeducators

• Paraeducators in special education programs.
  Presents information on the use of paraeducators or paraprofessionals in special education programs. Factors which contribute to the use of paraeducators in special education; Cases which showed the effectiveness of paraeducators; Recommendations on improving paraeducator effectiveness in schools; Web sites which offer information on improving practices and policies regarding paraeducators.
• Parent perspectives on the roles of paraprofessionals.
  Parents of children with severe handicaps receiving special education services in general classrooms were interviewed in focus groups about their perceptions of paraprofessionals who worked with their children. Mother’s had close bonds with paraprofessionals and identified with them.
• New careers for the poor: The nonprofessional in human service.
  This book is the original plan for the New Careers Program in the 1960’s and 70’s.
• Lives in transition.
  This article reviews a multi-agency career ladder training program for paraeducators. The personal stories of several participants are shared.
• New careers revisited: paraprofessional job creation follow-income communities.
  Reviews the state of programs today that were designed to help low-income communities increase their economic potential by employing people from their own neighborhoods and provide them training to work in human services positions in their own neighborhoods. The goal was not only to lift low income neighborhoods out of poverty by providing jobs to residents who came from the populations that they served, but to also provide additional education and training that would create career ladders into the professional ranks.
• What parents tell us about paraeducators.
  This study examined parent perceptions of the paraeducators’ role. Overall parents were pleased with the paraeducators’ work and role and even viewed them as teachers.
• Fewer paraprofessionals and more teachers and therapists in educational programs for students with significant disabilities.
  This article describes what other studies have found to be problems with the employment of paraeducators in educational settings. It also makes recommendations for eleven specific things that can be accomplished by paraeducators and recommends that we need to increase the number of paraeducators working in schools, not decrease them.
• A university-school district collaborative project for preparing paraprofessionals to become special educators.
  Like many paraeducators who become teachers the participants in this project were working, going to school, and balancing family responsibilities. A standard curriculum was used – based on state requirements, but packaging and delivery were altered to avoid redundancy and irrelevancy.
• Teacher aides and students' academic achievement.
  This article is based on a reanalysis of the Tennessee STAR report with regard to its findings on aides. It states that aides have no effect on students test scores and that students benefit academically if aides perform only clerical tasks.
• Paraeducators as critical team members: Redefining roles and responsibilities..
  This article is a review of literature the literature on paraeducators as team members and teacher-paraeducator collaboration. It is written from the perspective of what principals need to know about paraeducators as team members.
• The role of instructional assistants in regular classrooms: Are they influencing inclusive practices?
  This is a report of a research study in which the researcher observed ten regular elementary classrooms in seven Winnipeg elementary schools. She selected classes where instructional assistants were assigned to students with severe disabilities for a minimum of 2.5 hours per day.
• Managing paraeducators in your school: How to hire, train, and supervise non-certified staff.
  This book is a detailed resource guide for paraeducators and administrators on how to supervise paraeducators. It also includes information on hiring and training.
• Paraeducators: legal and practice considerations.
  This article explains the background of a case involving school health services. IDEA mandates that school health services must be provided by a qualified school nurse or other qualified person, but it does specify that courts ruled that a health aide can perform CIC (clean intermittent catheterization) and trach tube suctioning.
• The paraeducator-to-teacher pipeline: A five-year retrospective on an innovative teacher preparation program for Latina (os).
  The Center for Multilingual Multicultural Research at the University of Southern California (USC) founded the Latino Teacher Project initially using funds from the Ford Foundation. The primary objective was to increase the number of Latinos entering the teaching profession.
• Paraeducator relationships with parents of students with significant disabilities.
  This study examined the relationships between parents of students with significant disabilities and paraeducators who supported the students in inclusive educational settings. Results revealed five types of relationships between parents and paraeducators: close and personal friendship, routine limited interactions, routine extended interactions, tense relationship, and minimal relationship.
• Breaking the class ceiling: Paraeducator pathways to teaching.
  This study of paraeducator to teacher programs concludes that (1) too many children are currently being consigned to dead-end futures; (2) too many teachers who want to do better, don't have the tools to reach them and teach them; and (3) too many paraeducators who want to do more continue to bump up against a class ceiling. A class ceiling that is denying the nation their contributions at a time when America's teacher recruitment, development, and diversity challenges require engaging our best minds, our deepest values, our strongest commitments.
• Effective collaboration between professionals and paraprofessionals.
  This article provides information about the roles of team members. It provides a table that differentiates between the duties and responsibilities of general education teachers, special education teachers and paraeducators who work together in teams to serve the needs of children with disabilities.
• Schoolwide planning to improve paraeducator supports: A pilot study.
  This article is a report of a program evaluation data from 46 paraeducator-teacher teams in 13 states who used a 10 step planning process for paraeducator supports of students with disabilities. The findings showed that the process helped in assessing their own practices, identifying priorities, and developing actions, implementing and evaluating action plans.
• From aide to teacher: The story of the career opportunities program. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 139 798).
  This report tells the story of the Career Opportunities Program. In the 1970’s this was the first career ladder program for paraeducators in the United States.
• Instructional management of paraeducators in inclusive classrooms: The perspectives of the teachers.
  
• Not just helping hands.
  Based on recent research and data on paraprofessionals, this article describes the roles paraprofessionals play in schools and builds an argument for career ladders that help them become teachers. The number of paraprofessionals in public schools has grown faster than the number of teachers.
• From para to teacher. American Teacher
  This brief article discusses the strong match there is between the need for more teachers and the large number of paraprofessionals working in the nations’ schools. While not all paraprofessionals want to become teachers, a large number of would like to enter the profession.
• Absence unexcused: Ending teacher shortages in high-need areas:Evaluating the pathways to teaching careers program.
  This is a recently completed a six year evaluation of the Pathway to Teaching Careers program. This program funded by the DeWitt-Wallace Readers Digest fund trained people from three specific groups; emergency licensed substitutes, Peace Corps volunteers and paraeducators, to become teachers.
• Maximize paraprofessional services for students with learning disabilities.
  This article presents several ways to maximize paraprofessional services for student with learning disabilities. It provides information on how to determine of program and student needs, assess the kills of the teaching assistant, and document the performance of duties.
• Best and Promising Practices in Developmental Disabilities
  Twenty-six papers on the education of students with developmental disabilities are divided into 7 sections on: (1) definition and placement; (2) assessment and curriculum; (3) instructional strategies; (4) individual needs; (5) systematic and data-based instruction and management; (6) family involvement and community attitudes; and (7) appropriate services.
• Questionable utilization of paraprofessionals in inclusive schools: Are we addressing symptoms or causes?
  
• Apprenticeship for teaching: Professional development issues surrounding the collaborative relationship between teaches and paraeducators.
  Paraeducators in this study had one of three working relationships with teachers: Paraeducator as clerical support, Paraeducators as implementer of teacher plans, or Paraeducator as apprentice teacher. This role differentiation influenced the paraeducators desire to go on to become teachers.
• Increasing the number of minority teachers: Tapping the paraprofessional pool.
  A program at Armstrong Atlantic State University designed to increase the number of minority teachers by recruiting paraprofessionals was selected to be one of the national Pathways to Teaching careers programs. The program wanted to address Georgia’s need for minority teachers by training classified school district employees, mostly paraprofessionals.
• Critical factors affecting the success of paraprofessionals in the first two years of Career Ladder projects in Colorado.
  This article focuses on those factors that led to paraprofessionals' successful completion of their first year in a postsecondary setting. Specifically, this paper addresses the conceptual framework upon which these programs were developed, takes the reader through a series of steps utilized in recruitment and preparation of paraprofessionals for entry into their postsecondary experience, and discusses the strategies used in assisting paraprofessionals for successful completion of their first year of study in a college setting.
• Supervising paraprofessionals: A survey of teacher practices.
  This is a report on a research study that examined the practices of special education teachers in the supervision of paraprofessionals in Colorado. The study found a lack of pre-service and in-service preparation of teachers for supervision of paraeducators.
• Preparation for urban teaching: Post B.A. paraprofessionals.
  The author outlines a paraprofessional career ladder program designed as a partnership between the Seattle Public Schools (SPS) and Western Washington University (WWU). Based on their experiences with this program, the speaker concludes that successful program to train diverse teachers need to include; “clear requirements and responsibilities, fair an equitable treatment of students, giving particular attention to first-generation college students, especially those who have been out of school for several years, faculty who are willing and able to work with urban students, provisions for mentoring students, financial support, and flexibility of class scheduling.”.
• Perceptions of paraeducators on job retention. Teacher Education and Special Education
  The authors suggest that factors that are pertinent to teacher retention and attrition may also apply to paraeducators. These include burnout as related to low pay, lack of training, lack of support from parents, stress, student discipline problems, inadequate and insufficient materials, lack of administrative support, lack of influence over school policies and practices, and ambiguity of role definition.
• Perspectives of students with intellectual disabilities about their experiences with paraprofessional support.
  This article report on a research study that interviewed young adults about their perception of the paraeducator support they had received while in high school. The study found that paraeducators were viewed both positively and negatively in four roles: (1) mother; (2) friend; (3) protector from bullying; and (4) primary teacher.
• Para-educators: A source for remedying the shortage of teachers for limited English-proficient students.
  This article makes recommendations for the design of career ladder projects designed to train for paraeducators to become teachers of language minority students. The authors point to the need for financial, academic, and personal support for paraeducators who are becoming teachers.