Professional Documents
Culture Documents
MULTILINGUAL
PARAPROFESSIONALS
An Untapped Resource for Supporting
American Pluralism
JUNE 2016
Acknowledgments
Research support and/or editorial insight was provided by
April Ege, Lisa Guernsey, Sabrina Detlef, Janie Carnock,
Ann Duffett, and Shantel Meek. This brief is the first in a
series of publications by New Americas Dual Language
Learners National Work Group on policies related to
multilingual early and elementary school teachers.
This work is made possible by generous support from the
Heising-Simons Foundation, The McKnight Foundation,
the Gates Foundation, the Stone Foundation and the
Foundation for Child Development.
Contents
Introduction
What We Know
10
Notes
11
INTRODUCTION
This brief marks the first in a series of publications from New Americas Dual Language Learners National
Work Group. We aim to identify both the opportunities and challenges related to diversifying the language
skills of American teachers and the promising policies and initiatives aimed at addressing this challenge.
For more research and analysis of DLLs and education policy in the U.S., visit http://www.newamerica.org/
education-policy/dual-language-learners/.
EDUCATION POLICY
Black
Asian
Hawaiian and Pacific Islander
Other
Two or More
American Indian/Alaska Native
Note: Adapted from Paraprofessionals Could Help Solve Bilingual Teacher Shortages,
by Kaylan Connally and Kim Dancy.
EDUCATION POLICY
WHAT WE KNOW
Bureaucratic Obstacles
Multilingual paraprofessionals often serve as
primary linguistic and cultural connectors between
students, teachers, and families, and directly
support classroom instruction for multilingual
students. Though these valuable individuals could
help alleviate the countrys multilingual teaching
shortage, those who are interested in becoming
licensed face a host of overarching bureaucratic
obstacles.
First, elementary school teachers are required to
possess at least a bachelors degree, and many
states also require prospective teaching candidates
to earn a masters degree.17 Only one in five
multilingual paraprofessionals has at least a BA.18
While multilingual paraprofessionals may want to
earn additional credentials to become fully-licensed
teachersand enroll in institutions of higher
education to do sothey often face bureaucratic
barriers in the process. For instance, the structure
of colleges and universities can make it difficult
for paraprofessionals to pursue additional courses
or credentials that fit their needs and schedules.
These individuals are often working, non-traditional
students and have difficulty attending courses only
offered on campus or during the school day.19 To
make matters worse, once enrolled, they report
difficulty navigating university systems. This
EDUCATION POLICY
Financial Obstacles
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the
median salary for the 1.2 million paraprofessionals
in the U.S. was less than $25,000 in 2014.30 That
salary is about half of the median salary of an
elementary teacher ($53,760 in 2014), and close to
the federal poverty level for a family of four.31
And unlike classroom teachers, paraprofessionals
wages are not tied to their years of education,
experience, or effectiveness in the classroom.32
Census data reveal that multilingual
paraprofessionals earnings are relatively flat across
education levels.33 While median annual salaries
for American workers increase with each advanced
degree (i.e., from $21,177 for those with less than
a high school diploma to $71,830 for those with
graduate education beyond a bachelors degree),
multilingual paraprofessionals earnings range from
$18,152 to just $24,202, even for those with postgraduate education.34
Linguistic Obstacles
Nearly 20 percent of paraprofessionals in the U.S.
speak a non-English language at home, double the
percentage of lead teachers.49 While multilingual
paraprofessionals native language competencies
are critically useful instructional resources, most
states teacher licensure systems are not designed
to value them. Some paraprofessionals may have
met most of their states requirements for licensure,
but find that their English language abilities are an
obstacle. This does not mean that these educators
cannot speak English. Indeed, census data suggest
that multilingual paraprofessionals are more likely
than the average multilingual American to report
they speak English well or very well.50
Even though many schools and districts need these
educators to teach primarily (or exclusively) in their
native languages, states generally require them to
acquire their teaching licenses primarily in English.
EDUCATION POLICY
Academic Obstacles
There is growing demand to raise the qualifications
and diversity of the teaching workforce, particularly
for those working with students in the early years.52
However, the career pathways for linguistically
diverse teacher candidates are often limited
and difficult to navigate. Paraprofessionals who
want to become lead teachers experience unique
academic challenges. This is especially true for
those who have limited education. According to
census data, nearly 27 percent of multilingual
paraprofessionals have just a high school diploma
and nearly 12 percent lack even that credential.53
10
EDUCATION POLICY
Notes
Children Who Speak a Language Other Than English
at Home, Census 20022013 American Community
Survey. Accessed April 1, 2016 via Kids Count Data
Center, http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/
tables/81-children-who-speak-a-language-otherthan-english-at-home?loc=1&loct=1#detailed/1/any/
false/869,36,868,867,133/any/396,397.
1
Center, http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/
tables/81-children-who-speak-a-language-otherthan-english-at-home?loc=1&loct=1#detailed/1/
any/false/869,36,868,867,133/any/396,397; New
America analysis of U.S. Census Bureau Summary
File. 2014 American Community Survey. U.S. Census
Bureaus American Community Survey Office, 2014,
http://ftp2.census.gov/; Robert Kominski, Hyon
Shin, and Karen Marotz, Language Needs of SchoolAge Children, presentation at Annual Meeting of the
Population Association of America, New Orleans, LA,
April 2008, https://webcache.googleusercontent.
com/search?q=cache:CQ5TzZmCJ2IJ:www.
census.gov/hhes/socdemo/language/data/acs/
Language-Needs-of-School-Age-Children-PAA-2008.
doc+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us.
David J. Francis, Nonie Lesaux, and Diane August,
Language of Instruction, in Developing Literacy in
Second-Language Learners: Report of the National
Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth,
ed. Diane August and Timothy Shanahan (Mahwah,
NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2006), 397; cf. Diane
August and Timothy Shanahan, Developing Literacy
in Second-Language Learners: Report of the National
Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth:
Executive Summary (Washington, DC: Center for Applied
Linguistics, 2006), 5, http://www.bilingualeducation.org/
pdfs/PROP2272.pdf.
8
Janie Tankard Carnock, Interview: New Research Links
Dual Immersion to Reading Score Gains, EdCentral
(blog), New America, December 14, 2015, http://www.
edcentral.org/slater-dual-immersion/; Study of DualLanguage Immersion in the Portland Public Schools,
Year 4 Briefing (Washington, DC: American Councils for
International Education, November 2015), https://res.
cloudinary.com/bdy4ger4/image/upload/v1446848442/
DLI_Year_4_Summary_Nov2015v3_1_jwny3e.pdf; Wayne
P. Thomas and Virginia P. Collier, A National Study of
School Effectiveness for Language Minority Students LongTerm Academic Achievement (Santa Clara, CA: Center for
Research on Education, Diversity & Excellence, University
of California-Santa Cruz, 2002), 10; Rachel A. Valentino
and Sean F. Reardon, Effectiveness of Four Instructional
Programs Designed to Serve English Language Learners:
Variation by Ethnicity and Initial English Proficiency,
Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 37, no. 4 (April
2015): 612637; Ilana M. Umansky and Sean F. Reardon,
11
11
12
14
Maria Victoria Rodriguez, Bilingual Paraprofessionals,
in Encyclopedia of Bilingual Education, ed. Josu M.
Gonzlez (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2008),
85.
16
17
18
19
EDUCATION POLICY
20
21
Ibid.
23
Ibid.
25
Ibid.
28
Michael Genzuk and Nancy K. French, Recruiting
Paraeducators into Teacher Preparation Programs: A
Remedy for the Shortage of Teachers (Washington, DC:
American Association for Colleges for Teacher Education,
September 6, 2002).
30
33
34
Ibid.
Anne Simmons, A Guide to Developing Paraeducatorto-Teacher Programs (Belmont, MA: Recruiting New
Teachers, 2000), http://www.usc.edu/dept/education/
CMMR/paraed/RNTtoolkit.pdf.
36
37
38
13
39
41
Ibid.
46
Evelyn B. Dandy, Increasing the Number of Minority
Teachers: Tapping into the Paraprofessional Pool,
Education and Urban Society 31, no. 1 (1998): 89103;
Ana Maria Villegas and Beatriz Chu Clewell, Increasing
Teacher Diversity by Tapping the Paraprofessional Pool,
Theory Into Practice 37, no. 2 (February 1998): 121130;
Christina Bernal and Lorenso Aragon, Critical Factors
Affecting the Success of Paraprofessionals in the First Two
Years of Career Ladder Projects in Colorado, Remedial
and Special Education 25, no. 4 (2004): 205213; Karen
Sakash, and Victoria Chou, Increasing the Supply of
Latino Bilingual Teachers for the Chicago Public Schools,
Teacher Education Quarterly 34, no. 4 (Fall 2007): 4152.
48
Ibid., 27.
49
50
Ibid.
43
44
14
45
51
52
EDUCATION POLICY
54
56
57
15
This report carries a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, which
permits re-use of New America content when proper attribution is provided. This
means you are free to share and adapt New Americas work, or include our content
in derivative works, under the following conditions:
Attribution. You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and
indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but
not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
For the full legal code of this Creative Commons license, please visit
creativecommons.org.
If you have any questions about citing or reusing New America content, please visit
www.newamerica.org.
All photos in this report are supplied by, and licensed to, shutterstock.com unless
otherwise stated. Photos from federal government sources are used under section
105 of the Copyright Act.