Alongside of excellence

NEA Today, Oct 1999

NEA task force seeks recognition and advancement for paraeducators.

Ask NEA members Gwen Andrews and Joe Ramos how their work affects student achievement and their pride will just bowl you over.

"I provide personal attention and help build up students who come in with low self-esteem," says Andrews. She recalls how she and Sherry McDonald, her classroom partner at Konnoak Elementary in Forsyth County, North Carolina, once talked a special education student out of thinking he was stupid.

"We sat this child down and told him he had value and could be anything he wanted to be if he believed in himself," Andrews says. "He's now doing very well in middle school."

"I come from the community," says Ramos, a para at Louis and Clark High School in Spokane, Washington, "and I have tremendous background on the kids sent to our traffic safety class."

Like other educators, Ramos and his teaching partner know the thrill of breaking through to students, "when you see the light in their eyes and a smile, and know that they get it."

As veteran paraeducators (para meaning alongside), Andrews and Ramos know their collaboration with certified staff is as essential to quality as the teamwork of a paralegal and a lawyer or a paramedic and a physician.

More than 0,000 paraeducators now work in American public school classrooms and libraries, primarily serving kids from low-income families or those with disabilities or foreign language backgrounds. Yet the U.S. Department of Education reports that only 13 states have any sort of para credentialing system in place.

"You can't just come in off the street and do this job anymore," says Ramos. "Paras are as valuable in the education family as everybody else."

Advocating top-notch para training, a career ladder, and compensation to match, Joe Ramos has joined Gwen Andrews and other seasoned veterans on NEA's 20-member Paraeducator Task Force.

Panel members have an extensive wish list-everything from an NEA training package to a paraeducator information clearinghouse. But their initial charges are to:

Gain recognition for paraeducators. Far too many paraeducators tell Andrews, an ESP leader in the North Carolina Association of Educators, that teachers and principals don't respect them for the decisions they make because they are not deemed to be "professional" employees.

"Paras need respect for what they do," Andrews declares. "Each year their job becomes more complex."

Educate paras on the requirements of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act. Through a video, manual, and brochure, the task force will send out the word that IDEA requires training and supervision of support staff who work with disabled kids and allows these employees to work with regular ed students. In addition, thesematerials will also advise paras on how to push states to write and deliver guidelines for para training and how to apply for federal professional development grants.

Promote state standards for paraeducators. The task force is producing a manual on how to develop state "competencies," or standards, that address career ladders, alternative routes to teacher certification, and improved paraeducator skills.

Collaborate with the National Resource Center for Paraprofessionals in Education and Related Services. This center, affiliated with the City University of New York, is now drafting proposed standards for teacher and para roles on an educational team.

"We're trying to differentiate between tasks that a teacher must perform, like planning lessons, identifying needs, and modifying curricula, and tasks that can be shared with paras," says the center's director, Anna Lou Pickett.

The final standards will serve as federal guidelines for states and local districts as they plan for para roles, supervision, and training. And the standards will also help schools of education devise curricula on working with other adults in the classroom.

In the process, teachers should benefit as much as paraeducators.

Life won't get easier in public education, Pickett predicts. The role of teachers will change, and they'll need people to support them in what they do.

"Almost every other profession recognizes the role of its technicians and has standards for education and training," Pickett stresses. "Paramedic standards certainly don't threaten doctors, and paraeducator standards shouldn't threaten certified teachers."