A r c h i v e d I n f o r m a t i o n

Roles for Education Paraprofessionals in Effective Schools - 1997

Early Elementary Education Program

Frederick County Public Schools
Frederick, Maryland

Teaming for Early Success

Paraprofessionals and teachers plan and train together
Paraprofessionals' roles are clearly defined
Paraprofessionals and teachers document students' continuous improvement
Training is site-specific

Overview

Before class begins, Mary Jo and her cooperating teacher, Sara, review the lesson plans they prepared the week before, based on a developmentally appropriate unit they wrote with preK and kindergarten colleagues. Mary Jo greets the children as they enter the classroom, and during "concept time" she spends a few minutes with a girl who seems to need extra help grasping the concept of "home." During center time, Mary Jo works with children building houses out of blocks to reinforce the "home" theme and to extend their language skills. After the children have left, Mary Jo and Sara discuss the session, making notes on individual student progress and adjusting their plans for the afternoon session with another group.

Since 1979, the Early Elementary Education Program (EEEP) has been a Maryland-state-funded program for four-year-olds. The program is based on developmentally appropriate learning, with paraprofessionals and teachers delivering services to students. It encourages educators to work and plan together in teams and to attend frequent, job-related professional development sessions. For 1994-95, Frederick received $414,918 from the state to fund 6.5 EEEP projects serving 260 students.

Major Program Features

Districts must agree to 12 assurances when accepting EEEP funds, which, totaling more than $11 million in 1994-95, served 8,810 students in all of the state's 24 school districts. These assurances focus on developmentally appropriate instruction, coordination with succeeding grades, parent involvement, and appropriate professional development for teachers, assistants, and principals. Few mandates govern the program, although EEEP classes must be located in a Title I-eligible school. EEEP students must come from that school's attendance area, but they need not be "at risk."

Screening

Under a special enrollment policy that applies only to this program, Frederick County EEEP targets academically at-risk students, who are selected on the basis of low socio-economic status (SES). In the district, low SES for a student is defined as having a mother without a high school diploma. During the first two weeks in March, paraprofessional community liaisons supported by either Title I or district funds visit parents and other community members to recruit likely program candidates, many of whom are identified through older siblings enrolled in Title I or federal lunch programs. After the first round of enrollment, community liaisons repeat the process to recruit any additional students who qualify but who did not sign up for the program. EEEP holds a lottery to fill any remaining spaces.

Curriculum and Evaluation

Frederick County has a K-12 Essential Curriculum. The district's preschool administrator and teachers took seven state-defined domains and wrote their own indicators for preschool education covering the areas of creativity, social/emotional development, psychomotor development, cognition, curiosity, communication, and self-confidence. For each area, the group developed indicators based on observable behaviors.

The teacher and paraprofessional concentrate on different students each week by writing an anecdotal chronicle concerning the indicators on yellow sticky notes. Placing the notes on a class chart with a column for each area of development, the teacher and paraprofessional discuss the chart during their weekly joint planning time. Every few weeks, the team files the sticky notes for each child on an individual chart that serves as an anecdotal record that can be shared with parents or kindergarten teachers. Teams also keep portfolios of student work, selecting samples that show growth in the indicator areas.

Because the state mandates a 10:1 student-to-teacher ratio, every Frederick EEEP classroom is staffed with a certified teacher and at least one paraprofessional for every 20 children. Paraprofessionals and teachers work hand in hand to plan instruction and chart student progress, meeting at least 60 to 90 minutes per week during this joint planning time. Throughout the two-session school day, 9:00 to 11:30 and 1:00 to 3:30, they perform similar duties in the classroom, although "the buck stops with the teacher."

Greeting the children as they come in, the team conducts the opening activity and concept lesson. During this part of the day, the teacher takes the lead while the paraprofessional sits in the circle, assisting the teacher, talking with children, and providing one-on-one assistance as needed. For example, during a concept lesson on Hanukkah, when the teacher urged students to ask questions, the paraprofessional modeled the behavior by asking questions. The paraprofessional also provides another lap for students to sit on when they need reassurance. The main job of the EEEP paraprofessional is to assist the teacher with academic instruction, although some perform lunch duty when children are not in the classroom.

During center time, the teacher and paraprofessional are immersed in centers with the students. The adults work to facilitate instruction and extend language. The focus during center time is often on process rather than on product, a strategy the director of the program believes is developmentally appropriate for this age group. Teachers and paraprofessionals use the High Scope model from Michigan, which encourages children to "plan, do, review"--they plan what they will do in their chosen center, do it, and review how it went once they are finished.

Joint Planning Time

Teacher and paraprofessional teams plan together every day. At least twice a week in some schools, they meet and plan with kindergarten teachers in the building. Because both programs have two sessions each day with the same time off in the middle, joint planning time is easy to schedule. The expanded team plans instruction, discusses students and strategies, and ensures coordination between the two programs. Their joint planning also helps to ease students' transitions from EEEP to kindergarten, a stated goal of the program. During planning time, teams use a log sheet to track their discussion and activities and to file them for the principal.

Professional Development

To help paraprofessionals and teachers function as a team, the program director tries to visit at least one school each day and often sits in during the team's planning time to gauge whether the team has a good working relationship. She sometimes enhances communication between the paraprofessional and teacher.

Another strategy to help the team work efficiently is to bring paraprofessionals and teachers together as often as possible for professional development. Preschool teachers and paraprofessionals attend a voluntary afterschool meeting from 4:00 to 5:30 every six weeks; originally, the meetings were held monthly. Special education teachers or kindergarten teachers sometimes attend the same meetings to discuss such issues as inclusion of special education students or transitions to kindergarten. A focus of every meeting is situational problem solving; paraprofessionals and teachers describe to their peers how they solved a problem or issue. Some meetings have an open agenda to encourage educators to talk about the problems in their program.

Frederick County has two to three curriculum inservice days for paraprofessionals and teachers each year. However, buildings also sponsor their own professional development through site-based management funds. Curriculum inservice days have dealt with such issues as implementing small-group instruction, meeting the needs of learners, and helping students who are ready to move ahead. At these meetings teams discuss and make curricular changes and strategies.

The program director involves principals in the learning process as much as possible through curriculum meetings and workshops. For example, she led a principal workshop to help them understand what they should look for when observing center times. Encouraging the principals to meet with the EEEP teams, she informally answers the principals' questions whenever necessary.

Through a collaborative effort with several private schools and colleges in the area, Frederick County brings nationally known experts to speak on early childhood education and other topics. These meetings, which occur on Saturday mornings, deal with issues and strategies, including working with parents, reducing incidents of child-related violence, and implementing appropriate activities for young children. The state also offers workshops on early childhood education.

The EEEP program has sponsored the attendance of teams of paraprofessionals and teachers at conferences featuring such subjects as whole language instruction and instruction in music and movement.

Hiring and Recruitment

Principals advertise for paraprofessionals through the district's personnel department; they also interview and hire paraprofessionals, sometimes with the assistance of the early childhood program director and teachers. Principals evaluate applicants' experience of working with children, knowledge of early childhood development, and compatibility of their personality with that of the teacher.

Paraprofessionals must have a high school diploma or the equivalent; no further training is required for employment.

Evidence of Success

Although Frederick County does not collect data on the success of the EEEP program, district educators note that many EEEP students do not require Title I services in first grade. They attribute this to the program's early intervention strategies. In 1989 one school's program was chosen as an EEEP demonstration site. Four sites are validated by the National Association for the Education of Young Children and state certified.

A seven-year state study comparing nonprekindergarten graduates with those who completed the program found that by fifth grade the EEEP group had performed better than the nonpreschool group in all basic skill areas and that EEEP students were twice as likely to be selected to participate in gifted and talented programs. Besides having a significantly smaller number of high-risk referrals in kindergarten, the EEEP group had lower retention and special education placements through the fourth grade. Preliminary data from a new longitudinal state evaluation attest to the success of the program.
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