Without her teacher's aide, special education teacher Cynthia Peña in Salinas says her job would be extremely difficult. "We are a team. We have been working together for 18 years."
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Workgroup member Cynthia Peña listens as James Bothum at Bardin Elementary School in Salinas reads a class assignment. |
Peña considers her aide invaluable. "I really rely on her every day in the classroom. She works with my Spanish-speaking kids. She also works with students who need one-on-one attention, which frees me up to teach the rest of the students."
Peña, a member of CTA's Board of Directors and the ESEA Workgroup, is worried that the ESEA might turn education support personnel - also known as paraprofessionals or teacher's aides - into an endangered species. Under the new federal regulations, education support personnel working in Title I schools now have to be "highly qualified."
According to the law, all new education support personnel hired on or after Jan. 8, 2002, to work at Title I schools must have an associate's degree or two years of post-secondary education - or they must be high school graduates who can demonstrate, on a state or local assessment, skills in reading, writing and math.
Existing education support personnel must meet the standard within four years. The only exceptions are those who primarily act as translators or are solely involved in parental involvement activities.
The law has already had an impact. The North Sacramento Unified School District decided not to hire any education support personnel this year.
"There is a lot of concern among education support professionals and teachers," says Paula Monroe, president of the Redlands ESP Association. "We have paras who have been in their jobs 25 and 30 years. The average instructional assistant has been employed in our district for 11 years. And now our competency is being questioned."
Education support personnel positions tend to be low on the pay scale, beginning at minimum wage in some districts, notes Monroe, who also serves as the ESP at-large representative on the NEA Board of Directors. However the new regulations do not include increased compensation for the extra educational requirements.
"Of course, we should be compensated if we are required to have an A.A. degree," she says. "Right now we are making less than clerical people at schools - and they don't have to have an A.A. degree."
Especially confusing is the requirement that paraprofessionals pass a district or state-approved test demonstrating rigorous standards. "Basically there is no test at this point," says Monroe. "Our concern is that it may not be developed for a while. And there is no college curriculum specifically for paraprofessionals. We think it might be the same as general education requirements for an A.A. degree, but we don't know."
She believes that the new legislation may be partly intended to give paraprofessionals a push down the teacher career path, as a way to fill the teacher shortage. "But not everyone who is a para wants to be a teacher," she says. "The majority of paras like what they do - assisting in the classroom. They feel like they are contributing and making a difference. They may enjoy working part-time. And they may not want the responsibility of being a classroom teacher."
A large percentage of education support personnel will choose not to go to college, Monroe predicts. "They won't be willing to go back to school so they can earn $9 an hour. So, in addition to a teacher shortage, you're going to have a shortage of paraprofessionals. I think it's going to be a big issue down the road - especially for special education teachers. Right now it's on the back burner, because districts are trying to deal with how to survive the highly qualified teacher issue. But pretty soon they may be dealing with how to survive without us."
