Paraprofessional Supervision
McKenzie, a., & S. Lewis. (2008). The role and training of paraprofessionals who work with students who are visually impaired. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, 102(8), 459-471. Retrieved September 3, 2009, from Research Library. (Document ID: 1560016031).
As the number of paraprofessionals serving in America's schools has increased, troubling questions have emerged regarding their supervision and training, particularly in regards to special needs students. The article entitled "The role and training of paraprofessionals who work with students who are visually impaired" from the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, surveyed teachers of students with visual impairments from 27 states and paraprofessionals of visually impaired students from 19 states. 45.5% of the survey population was from California, Florida, Georgia, and Texas. While NCLB sets the goal for paraprofessionals to have 2 years of university study in their area of employment and have some form of certification, 29% of surveyed paraprofessionals lacked a high school diploma.
Paraprofessionals for special needs students defined their roles as inclusionary and instructional in nature. According to 62.8% of the teachers supervising paraprofessionals in classrooms, the paraprofessionals with whom they work do not provide direct instruction. But 54.2% of the paraprofessionals stated that they do provide direct instruction in core curriculum areas. This troubling lack of consistency is alarming, moreover, the classroom size of the teachers made no difference in terms of the level of instructional support the paraprofessionals were called upon to perform, according to both teachers and paraprofessionals.
In the study of paraprofessionals, 107 of whom provided complete, usable responses to the Internet survey, although 68 of the paraprofessionals reported attending training sessions in Braille, 44 believed the required additional training in that area to be effective. Yet 18.8% of teachers and 29% of paraprofessionals reported they were called upon to perform direct instruction in language arts to visually-impaired students. Overall, although the study is small, the article provides an alarming heads-up regarding its central thesis that the "growing use of paraprofessionals in supporting the education of students with disabilities has outpaced the ability to define clearly the roles, training, and supervision needs of paraprofessionals" (McKenzie & Lewis 2008).
