Book Description

This guide provides tools and strategies for recruiting, managing, and using paraeducators in schools. It offers guidelines for using paraeducators in ways that best contribute to student achievement as well as strategies for identifying best practices, time frames, and people best suited for training paraprofessionals. It includes specific guidelines for working with paraeducators in special education, Title I, ESL training, school libraries and media centers, general and special education classrooms, speech/language pathology, and health-care services. It is designed for district-level administrators, school administrators, and teachers. The chapters are titled as follows: (1) "Employing Support Personnel in Schools"; (2) "Potential Problems with Paraeducators/Finding Solutions"; (3) "The Shifting Roles of School Professionals"; (4) "Recruiting and Hiring Paraprofessionals"; (5) "Starting Off on the Right Foot"; (6) "Taking Time to Save Time: Delegating to Paraeducators"; (7) "Planning for Paraeducators"; (8) "Paraeducator Training"; (9) "Monitoring and Evaluating Paraeducator Performance"; (10) "Managing the Workplace." Each chapter contains a summary. The guide also contains many user-friendly information recaps; lists of questions; sample forms; sample plans; worksheets for a variety of tasks; and self-assessment and support checklists for a variety of tasks. (Contains a subject index and 73 references.) (WFA).