Para Educator’s Impacts On Student Learning Keeps Growing

By Author: Edina Clark
Total Articles: 1
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The transformation of paraeducators has been on occurrence for 15 years and some of the characteristics that make the fact evident are;
• A nationwide increase in class size
• Influx of immigrants’ children who do not natively speak English.
• Creation of federal legislation such as the No Child Left Behind Act and the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act
Transformation of paraeducators.
In about a dozen special needs students, there is a group of paraeducators. Transformation of these paraeducators has increased greatly and according to the U.S. Census Bureau, paraeducators holding associates degree doubled between 1996 and 2012. In the present day, paraeducators tend to hold two-year degrees and much more have been earning advanced degrees too.
Paraeducators have been recognized as more than just backup persons who work at the end of a classroom. Paraeducators work with students with the special needs as their key roles in the performance of their duties. Most of the recommended paraeducators should be holders of an associate’s degree or should have at least attended ...
... college for two years.
Roles of paraeducators.
The key role of paraeducators is to impact the success of the special needs students according to how they have been trained to. Paraeducators must have passed all the tests to hold the title they have. Paraeducators are also trained together with teachers on a given curriculum so that impressive academic gains can be made.

Paraeducators versus teachers.
There are cases where kids have explosive behavior problems and paraeducators may take most of their time calming that one student down properly and safely. For this reason, paraeducators have become trusted partners to teachers, technicians for students and channels of communication for parents and the school body. Paraeducators usually have many great ideas and experiences to share with teachers and a classroom is close to impossible to manage without them. Paraeducators assist in the successful achievement of students both in and out of the classroom in certain ways:
• Academically: by instructing a small group with special needs.
• Behaviorally: assisting the students with anti-bullying techniques.
• Socially: assisting students to interact with each other.
• Physically: assisting the students with visible activities like eating, dressing, moving and to advanced levels, administering medical procedures.

The paraeducators’ body
Paraeducators have formed the largest group with the National Education Association (NEA) among nine job categories. For this reason, the NEA has even built a body known as National Paraeducators Institute (NPI) which provides resources, professional development and policy guidance to the paraeducators in it. The NPI works with stakeholders on paraeducators issues to influence national discussions and facilitate legislative action.
Paraeducators cannot be determined by the amount they are paid. If they were determined by the amount they are paid, then student success rate could not be an outcome of their roles in education but they would just be normally valued members of the education community.
Training of paraeducators should, therefore, be aimed at building strong members who will be focused on supporting the success of students and serving the community indirectly through achievement of the students.

Author Bio: The author of this guest article is Edina Clark. She loves writing about education and also do a job at Can Someone Do My Essay For Me – EssayCampus. She is a graduate of the Loyola University, a degree holder of Bachelor of Education and a teacher at Moose-heart School.