The number of paraeducators in U.S. schools has grown at a faster rate than either the number of students or teachers in the last decade of the 20th century. Although the increase in the number of classroom assistants can be linked to the inclusive mission of teaching all children, in many classrooms the assistant's role and status still remain unclear.
But that could change under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which puts paraeducator qualifications under a spotlight. The education law calls for a number of ways—such as requiring two years of college studies or a formal assessment—to ensure that Title 1 paraeducators are qualified to assist teachers in helping students succeed in reading, writing, and math.
At the same time, the provisions will likely have a more general impact on the relationship between teachers and paraeducators, say those who have studied the implications of the law. Teachers will be held more accountable for supervising their paraeducators, teachers' union officials say. At local and state levels, administrators will need to consider giving paraeducators more support and professional development to help them fulfill their role in assisting in student achievement, paraprofessional advocates predict.
Although the full implications of the No Child Left Behind Act are still uncertain, educators welcome the spotlight on paraeducators and believe that it will bring benefits.
For example, the law won't change the day-to-day tasks of paraprofessionals, but it will help them do a better job, says Tish Olshefski, director of the Paraprofessional and School-Related Personnel Division of the American Federation of Teachers. “The new law gives much clearer guidelines about what the paraeducators can do. They can only provide instructional services when they're working under the direction of a teacher. They can't make curriculum decisions on their own. We hope that it puts an end to the misassignment of paraeducators—having them work as substitute teachers, or answering phones in the main office, or doing hall duty,” says Olshefski.
The role of paraeducators in the classroom has shifted since the 1950s and 1960s when teachers' aides first appeared in U.S. schools. Assisting in clerical tasks, fashioning bulletin boards, and collecting milk money have given way to paraeducators' larger role in supporting learning, says Anna Lou Pickett. Founder of the National Resource Center for Paraprofessionals (NRCP) in 1989, Pickett coined the term paraeducator to denote those who work alongside teachers, much as paralegals work with lawyers.
As Title 1, Head Start, and the Individuals with Disabilities Act have fostered programs for disadvantaged students and those with disabilities, schools have increasingly relied on paraeducators to help teachers meet the needs of all students. In 2000, the National Center for Education Statistics reported a 48 percent increase in instructional paraeducators in the United States between 1990 and 1998.
According to a 2001 survey by the NRCP, the equivalent of about 525,000 full-time paraeducators work in U.S. schools. Most of them serve students with disabilities in special education and general education settings. About 130,000 paraeducators work in Title 1 programs or multilingual classrooms, and about 100,000 paraeducators work in early childhood education settings, libraries, media centers, and computer labs.
The Teacher-Supervisor
The increase in paraeducator numbers has also created an issue that many educators say has not been properly confronted: the evolving role of the teacher. “The roles of teachers have changed dramatically, but we've never looked at the support systems that they need to take on these roles that are more demanding,” says Pickett.
Many teachers now head teams that put them “in the front lines of curriculum alignment,” says Pickett. A teacher may need to work with other professionals, including other teachers, occupational therapists, physical therapists, and speech therapists to develop a federally mandated individualized education plan, work with her paraeducators to execute the plan, and meet with school administrators and parents to monitor and explain how a student is progressing.
Most education schools don't train teachers for supervising paraeducators and other adults working with them, says Pickett. This lack of training can “create problems with teamwork in the classroom,” she suggests. “Teachers may feel threatened because they themselves are unsure of what the roles are for the teacher and for the paraeducator.”
Open Communication
One way of ensuring that teachers and paraeducators understand their roles and responsibilities is to keep open the lines of communication. But good communication goes beyond just talking to each other, says Jill Morgan, research assistant professor in special education at Utah State University. Morgan, along with Betty Ashbaker, assistant professor in psychology and special education at Brigham Young University, wrote the 2001 ASCD book A Teacher's Guide to Working with Paraeducators and Other Classroom Aides, which outlines a detailed program for forging a productive working relationship among teachers and paraeducators.
“Communication is probably the biggest issue between teachers and paraeducators. It is not something that just happens—it has to be deliberate. Telling is not enough. Even giving lots of details is not enough, because that often doesn't leave time for the paraeducator to ask questions,” says Morgan. Good communication also includes giving a paraeducator feedback on her performance and offering instruction on how to do a task better, she adds.
Planning time between teacher and paraeducator will allow the teacher to talk with and learn the strengths of her assistant, says Olshefski. “If you don't know what the paraeducator is good at or the best skill level areas, you won't use them in the best way,” she says.
Another aspect of communication that may be overlooked by the teacher is advocacy on behalf of the paraeducator—for example, in the principal's office. If a teacher feels that a paraeducator should attend an after-school meeting to discuss a student's individualized education plan, the teacher should lobby the principal to compensate the paraeducator in terms of time or money, Morgan suggests. “The teacher is advocating for status, for the paraeducator's contribution to be properly recognized and compensated.”
One more key component to the teacher-paraeducator relationship is professional development for teaching assistants. Paraeducators would like more professional development, says Donna Flanigan, a learning resource center assistant at Columbus Manor Elementary School in Oaklawn, Ill. “Paraeducators feel that many inservices don't pertain to them. They want information tailored to their job,” says Flanigan. In the light of the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act, Morgan asserts that it's crucial to make sure that paraeducators know what kind of educational opportunities and financial aid are available for them, whether at a local college or via the Internet, so they can make their own decisions about how to pursue higher education. The principal or teacher can assist paraeducators by directing them to specialized organizations and information.
Supporting the Teacher
Just as paraeducators need support from their education colleagues, teachers need to understand the function of the assistants in their classrooms. The role and tasks of the paraeducator depend on the particular situation and level of responsibility. Some paraeducators may not be part of the instructional team and may monitor lunches or supervise the playground. Others are more directly involved in instruction. For her golden rule with paraeducators, elementary teacher Dawn Stanovich of Oaklawn, Ill., states, “I don't like to ask someone to do what I wouldn't do myself.”
Although not allowed to make curriculum decisions, paraeducators can “review, reinforce, enhance, or otherwise apply” what the teacher has already taught, says Sylvia Acevedo-Guilkerson, director of the Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment Program in the Baldwin Park Unified School District, near Los Angeles. So, for example, after teaching about compound words, a teacher may direct a paraeducator to conduct a review lesson or play a game with students that reinforces the concept.
“Teachers don't know how to use paraeducators well,” says Acevedo-Guilkerson, but through monthly seminars, Baldwin Park's support and assessment program helps beginning teachers learn how to work effectively with paraeducators. “We don't think correcting papers is a good use of a paraeducator's time, so mentor teachers offer examples from their own classroom about better use of paraeducators—there are lots of different models,” says Acevedo-Guilkerson.
Strength in Diversity
In addition to supporting the teacher's instruction and the curriculum, paraeducators can make more-subtle contributions. Because paraeducators often come from the community and can provide a link to neighborhoods and culture, the value of the sociocultural connections that they can bring to the education setting is being recognized from remote rural districts to diverse urban areas.
In schools on Native American reservations in Montana, for example, paraeducators with cultural and linguistic links to students often can “better tie the local situation to lessons” than the teacher can, says Mike Hermanson, director of the Montana Paraeducators Development Project. Because reservation schools tend to have a high turn-over of teachers, he notes, the paraeducator can provide a stable bridge between the classroom and the students' culture.
Paraeducators with community ties must walk a thin line between participating in a neighborly chat and violating professional confidentiality, however. Paraeducators may be good friends with a student's parents or could even be related to a student. “It's good to use [familiarity] to build community bonds, but paraeducators also need to understand when you can't give information in a friendly conversation,” says Hermanson. Even offering positive news that “Johnny has done real well today” may violate confidentiality codes if discussed with a student's relative in the grocery store, he adds.
Paraeducators with community bonds also provide benefits in urban school districts with diverse populations. When an assistant spends time with students on the playground, discusses nonschool topics, and speaks in their first language, students often relate to the assistant in a more personal way than with a teacher who may be from a different background. By tapping into the paraeducator's insights, the teacher can gain a more holistic understanding of a student, according to educational researchers Lilia Monzó and Robert Rueda at the University of Southern California.
Moreover, the shared experiences, language, and sociocultural background of the students and paraeducators can be significant scaffolds or tools to hook students into the curriculum and instructional activities, says Rueda. “The idea is to overlap the teacher's pedagogical knowledge with the sociocultural resources or ‘funds of knowledge’” of the paraeducator and students, and to use these in deliberate, strategic ways, he adds.
By working to understand the emotional or environmental factors affecting a student's reading performance, Rueda and Monzó conclude, the teacher may be better able to craft a solution tailored to the individual student. “That can be powerful,” asserts Rueda.
Such powerful connections among paraeducators, teachers, students, the community, and learning are at the foundation of education and these provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act. With increased resources and support, paraeducators can continue to grow in quality, as well as in number.
