Proving Their Worth

Photo by Alden Pellett

Paraeducators demonstrate that they're 'qualified' under federal law by building portfolios. It's all about collection, verification, and self-reflection.

Thumb through the career portfolio of Vermont paraeducator Jane Badger, and you might just feel a trifle undertrained. In that binder are 17 years' worth of certificates, job descriptions, forms verifying "demonstrated" skills, outlines of completed workshops, and signed notes from principals and trainers.

On the face of this evidence, the Washington Central Supervisory Union district and the state of Vermont have agreed that Badger is the kind of skilled Title I paraeducator required by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), also known as the No Child Left Behind Act.

This law allows states flexibility to determine the best "formal state or local academic assessment" to qualify paraeducators who were hired before January 8, 2002. So Badger won't need to stress over an ESEA deadline to obtain an associate's degree, complete at least two years of higher education, or sweat through a state "Parapro" exam by January 2006 to prove she's "highly qualified."

"The law and regulations are explicit: This does not have to be a written assessment," notes Joel Packer, NEA manager for ESEA policy. "Some states may prefer statewide assessments and others local assessments, but there are a whole range of options out there."

NEA successfully lobbied in 2001 to insert a range of assessment options in the reauthorized ESEA and is now "working with Congress to gain funding for para training and additional flexibility for states to meet ESEA standards," Packer points out.

Because of the vigilance of NEA and their state affiliates, paras in a several states can now use a portfolio to prove their worth to the world. Here's a portfolio progress report from three states:

Vermont: reflecting and connecting--When Vermont authorized each district to create its own paraeducator assessment, a union-management committee in the Washington Central Supervisory Union--including Jane Badger--agreed that all Title I paras must keep portfolios. Paras then learned how to build those binders with the help of a traveling portfolio workshop sponsored by Vermont-NEA.

Leading this workshop are three veteran educators from the preK-12 Twinfield Union School in Plainfield, high school social studies/English teacher Terri Vest and paras Johnnye Burtt and Linda Howard. The trio briefs paras on portfolio basics such as r?sum? writing, education/qualification "evidence gathering," and the self-reflection needed to connect a portfolio to classroom practice--and pin down one's strengths, weaknesses, objectives, and professional development needs.

This process has proved its worth to Vermont teachers, who use portfolios "with reflections" to gain state relicensure, and to candidates for certification by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). Vest, a National Board-certified teacher and member of the Vermont State Board for Professional Educators, says the reflective aspect of the NBPTS process "completely changed my way of teaching."

The portfolio process "acknowledges that paras are educators," says Vest, president of the Twinfield Education Association. "It allows paras not only to show the 'seat time' activities in which they may have engaged, it allows them to demonstrate real knowledge, however it is acquired. And the reflection demonstrates what the person actually learned and how she proposes to use that knowledge in a real-life setting."

"It's important for paras to establish our professional identity--who we are and what we know," adds Burtt, who works alongside Vest in the classroom. "A portfolio is easy to do when broken down into steps, and it ties everything together for you. When you're reflective, you're not willy-nilly. You're making a plan that comes full circle."

Howard, who works in the Twinfield Union School media center and serves as president of the Twinfield Staff Association, has an equally compelling argument for building a portfolio. "When you've demonstrated that you have marketable skills," she says, "you can go to the bargaining table and say, 'we are worth more than you are paying us.'"

Washington: not "second best" to a test--Agreeing with the NEA state affiliate that many "test-phobic" paraeducators might struggle with a written qualification exam, Washington state's Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction is proposing the "portfolio assessment process" as a statewide option. Now, with the help of a $5,000 NEA grant, the Washington Education Association (WEA) has launched a professional development program to assist paras in planning for, compiling, organizing, and revising portfolios over the next year.

"We need to provide paras with multiple ways to demonstrate their competency," says WEA staffer Jim Meadows. "WEA is encouraging state leaders to see that a portfolio isn't 'second best' to a test, but is probably a more robust measure of what they know and are actually able to do with kids."

WEA is drawing lessons for paras from the NBPTS teacher portfolio process. "Washington's National Board-certified teachers say this is the one of the most valuable professional development experiences they've had and that it makes a direct impact on what they do in the classroom," says Meadows.

National Board candidates in Washington have a high certification rate--62 percent--in part because they use a WEA-backed "support group model" to survive the process. WEA now plans to extend that model to paras working on portfolios.

Pennsylvania: making bright paras the best--In Pennsylvania, where districts now choose their own para assessment options, a growing number of administrators are selecting the Pennsylvania State Education Association's (PSEA) ESP Paraprofessional Portfolio Program, which grew out of a $5,000 NEA grant and is one of three options recommended for general use by the state Department of Education.

Paras in this program, free to PSEA members, complete a self-assessment of abilities and professional goals, then design a course of study toward 50 "credit points"--divided among approved workshops and classes, conferences, in-service presentations, documented experience, and independent study.

Upon verifying all qualifications, the para receives a certificate from PSEA, which is a state-certified provider of in-service training. PSEA staffer Fran Pierce reports that "we have negotiated to make regular teacher in-service training available to paras, where appropriate, for portfolio credit.

"We already know PSEA para members are bright and good at what they do," Pierce notes. "We're just making sure they do the best job they can for kids!"

--Dave winans

Fore more, contact Fran Pierce at fpierce@psea.org, Jim Meadows at jmeadows@washingtonnea.org, or Terri Vest at terri_vest@hotmail.com. Vest and Linda Howard will conduct a portfolio workshop next March at the NEA ESP Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina.