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Key Issues
Associate Degree or Certificate?
Students and working paraprofessionals may be unsure of whether to earn an associate degree, complete a two-year AAS or certificate program, or simply enroll in two years of college classes. NCLB states that individuals who have already taken coursework at a college or university but have not yet accumulated the equivalent of two years of semester credit hours, may continue to take courses until they have completed the requisite number of credits. While two years of college-level course credits will meet the basic educational requirements under NCLB, fulfilling the requirements for the associate degree may be the best option for students or working paraprofessionals who have any interest in ever becoming a certified teacher.
Earning an associate degree will allow the individual to gain valuable classroom experience as a paraprofessional in the interim, while testing the waters to determine if education is indeed his or her career of choice. National statistics show that one in three teachers leave the profession within the first three years. However, a study conducted in North Carolina found that more than 80% of paraprofessionals who returned to school to become certified as teachers remained in the teaching field.
The Expense of Meeting New Standards
A key question for paraprofessionals who are considering earning a degree to meet NCLB standards is who will pay. If the new standards are job requirements, is it the responsibility of the district or the individual to pay? Given the low wages earned by most classroom aides – the median pay nationally for a paraprofessional in 2000 was $17,350 -- it may be difficult for many of them to afford the expense of two years of higher education or a degree, even with the generally lower tuition and fees found at most community colleges. And if paraprofessionals are going to be expected to return to school, they expect a return on their investment: higher pay. Without certification guidelines or recognized standards for increasing levels of responsibility, there is little room for professional advancement unless the paraprofessional goes on to earn a full-fledged teaching certificate.
Competing Obligations
The vast majority of classroom paraprofessionals are women who also tend to have significant family responsibilities. Balancing a fulltime job and personal and family obligations with the challenges of enrolling in and successfully completing college-level classes in the evenings and on weekends will be a significant load for most working paraprofessionals.
Lessons learned from similar programs designed for working professionals suggest that paraprofessionals will benefit most from cohort programs, developed in partnerships between local education agencies and the community college, that include a significant student-support component.
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