At the time, Castro’s salary was less than $20,000. Two decades later, after earning both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sociology and urban studies and working as a special education and a language paraprofessional, she is earning $55,000 – still far below what most people would need to earn to afford to live in New York. To help her make ends meet, Castro lived with her parents early on in her career. 

But the main reason she has stuck with it? The impact she has had on the kids.  

“We are there with the students every period, so we see the challenges the students go through and their success,” Castro said. “To me, it’s amazing to see, especially when I’m [working with] an autistic child who, for the first time, is learning how to read and learning how to write their name.”

Castro now advocates for other classroom support staff as the president of the paraprofessional chapter of the United Federation of Teachers in New York City. The city is currently struggling with a shortage of more than 1,550 paraprofessionals. Hoping to attract and retain more people to the profession, the union is stepping outside of its traditional collective bargaining practices to that would of at least $10,000 for the city’s paraprofessionals.

Paraprofessionals are usually hourly workers who assist students and teachers with classroom work, supervision and instructing small groups. Roughly 75% of paras don’t have a bachelor’s degree, according to a . Average pay for paraprofessionals in 2024 was $35,240, according to the .  

Across the U.S., unions are seeking to boost paraprofessional pay, which remains so low that workers are struggling to get by in many states, according to an from the National Education Association.

A found that more than half of paraprofessionals worked other jobs on weekdays after classes ended and 75% said they had a problem making a living wage.

The NEA said that while paraprofessional pay has improved, “there is still a lot of work to be done.”

In April, paraprofessionals in Boston landed raises ranging from 23% to 31% over three years Most will see a pay increase of nearly $8,000 by the end of the , according to the Boston Teachers Union. 

Allentown School District in Pennsylvania accepted a contract last fall that will give its paraprofessionals . Pittsburgh Public Schools awarded its paras in December.

In addition, California lawmakers are that would increase pay for both teachers and staffers, including paraprofessionals, by 50% over the next 10 years. 

“I’ve received strong support from teachers and [other school] employees who are struggling to live in the communities that they work in,” said Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, who authored the bill.

Dannel Montesano is one of them. She left her paraprofessional job earlier this year to become an office clerk at Liberty Ranch High School in Galt, California. The new job paid just $1 more per hour. It was the only way she could get a raise.

“Our starting paraprofessional pay is $18.63 an hour. This school year, we’ve had a hard time filling all of the positions because when you can go work at McDonald’s for over $20 an hour — and not have as much responsibility working one-on-one with students —- the draw isn’t there,” she said.

In New York City, paraprofessionals earn between $31,787 to $52,847 a year, according to the UFT. The city’s current system of collective bargaining ensures all job titles receive the same percentage wage increase. But those increases have a varying impact depending on an employee’s base pay. The union said in a that a 3% pay raise could mean roughly a $900 increase for a paraprofessional but a $6,000 bump for a principal. 

More than 1,600 union members rallied in front of City Hall in April to advocate for the paraprofessional pay bill, which would create a separate “” that would exist outside of collective bargaining. Each year, the city’s general fund would provide full-time paraprofessionals with a check of at least $10,000.

“We have paraprofessionals who are struggling,” Castro said. “I received an email from a paraprofessional who’s living in a shelter with a child. It broke my heart to receive this email. We have to make a difference. We have to ensure that the bill is passed in City Hall, because it would change so many lives.”

As the nation faces a teacher shortage that has reached an — with at least — why not tap into a talented pool of educators who could help close that gap? The Mississippi Department of Education created a to do just that, and the results are encouraging. Students assigned to teaching candidates participating in the pilot performed just as well on average as peers taught by traditionally certified teachers on state standardized tests, and even outperformed them in math.  

A few years ago, the department asked district leaders and principals how it could help them address teacher vacancies. School leaders lamented that they had outstanding paraprofessionals and other staffers who wanted to be teachers, wanted to continue to live and work in their communities and had fulfilled every prerequisite to becoming a teacher except the licensure test. If only there were a way for these educator candidates to demonstrate their subject matter knowledge and pedagogy in a performance-based manner. If only there were an alternative pathway to get them into teaching positions. 

The department responded by launching the three-year pilot in fall 2019. It was designed for school employees who had a bachelor’s degree and classroom experience as a long-term substitute, paraprofessional or emergency-licensed teacher. Nominated by their principals, 126 staff members from eight school districts participated, serving as teachers on a special, non-renewable license established specifically for the pilot. The program utilized performance-based measures to determine candidates’ readiness for licensure, including their students’ achievement and growth on standardized tests such as the Mississippi Academic Assessment Program.

The department partnered with , to conduct an external evaluation of the pilot. Laski examined how the candidates’ students performed on state standardized tests compared with students of traditionally certified teachers selected at the outset of the pilot; students of teachers in other classrooms in the same school, grade and subject; and students of teachers holding emergency licenses. The was designed so observed differences in test scores between pilot candidates and teachers in the first and second groups could be attributed to the pilot candidates themselves, not simply to differences in student assignment. The third group was included because, if not for the pilot program, most of these vacancies would be filled with emergency-certified teachers. 

When looking at average scores across all standardized test subjects, students assigned to pilot group candidates performed just as well on state standardized tests as those taught by educators in each comparison group. And, in both the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years, students assigned to pilot candidates scored roughly 0.2 standard deviations higher on the state’s standardized math tests than peers in the same grade and subject in their school. This translates to roughly six months of learning — a significant and impressive increase. Additionally, and importantly, the research found that the pilot candidates were more likely to continue teaching in their district in subsequent years than teachers in comparison groups.

In November 2023, buoyed by these results and positive stakeholder feedback, the Mississippi State Board of Education approved the department’s recommendation to officially create a . This new pathway will initially be available to candidates teaching a state-tested subject in grades 5 through 8 so the department can continue to examine student academic growth data.

As policymakers and state, district and school leaders explore ways to address teacher shortages, they should take note of Mississippi’s willingness to try something new and its methodical, phased approach. After all, the current reliance on licensure testing alone isn’t cutting it. Students — and schools — would be better served by licensure pathways based on an individual’s demonstrated ability to help students learn. The country has an enormous opportunity to tap a talented pipeline of educators who are being kept out of the classroom. What are we waiting for? 

OMAHA — Three Nebraska K-12 school districts are planting future teachers this spring in a new pilot program the Legislature seeded last year with $1 million.

North Platte Public Schools, Lincoln Public Schools and Westside Community Schools in Omaha are joining with higher education institutions and the state to ease the path from para-educator to teacher.

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Passing Legislative Bill 705 was one of several small steps the Legislature took in 2023 to give local school districts more tools to address an ongoing shortage of classroom teachers.

Once accepted, program participants — the classroom aides or educational assistants — can cut the cost and time it takes to complete a tailored teacher education program.

Credit for classroom work

The program’s higher ed partners at Chadron State College, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Midland University will grant college credits to paras for some of their classroom experience.

Organizers call it the “apprenticeship model.” Paras are paired with mentor teachers in their schools who serve as co-teachers and offer feedback to the paras and college faculty.

State Education Commissioner Brian Maher announced Westside as the state’s third pilot district Wednesday at Westbrook Elementary School, where ed assistant Shelly Sip helps kindergartners with reading.

Sip said she participates in a district-funded precursor to the state program. That program pays for an undergraduate teaching program at Midland at night while she works full-time during the day.

The 15-year ed assistant said she and many other para-educators want to be teachers but could not afford to attend a teacher education program without financial help from the district or the state.

“I wanted to be in the front of the room,” she said. “I wanted to make the lesson plans. And I found out that Westside is doing the program … and the district will pay for my education.”

She said she has benefited from seeing classrooms in her role as an education assistant. She helps lead reading groups, helps with math and walks kids to recess and lunch.

She said she attended the district, sent her kids to the district and now wants to teach there.

“I’m here, and I’ve been here since kindergarten, and I will be here for probably ever,” she said.

Another tool for school hiring

Andrea Haynes, Westside’s assistant superintendent for human resources, said the new program would reduce the time that paras spend outside of the classroom preparing to become teachers.

She called the program a “groundbreaking partnership” that shows the district and the state’s commitment to “nurturing talent and fostering a strong educational community.”

She said it helps address the teacher shortage by “building a sustainable pipeline of amazing educators right from our own classrooms.”

“We believe this innovative model not only accelerates their path to becoming certified teachers, but it also empowers them to elevate their impact,” Haynes said.

Mary Ritzdorf, dean of the Walker School of Education at Midland, said the university and Westside were still working out specifics of how many credits paras could earn while at work.

Traditional students in teaching programs don’t get into classroom settings regularly until their final year of college. In this, officials said, paras have an edge.

The apprenticeship model would likely, among other things, help accepted paras to stay working in their schools through their student teaching, reducing the need for substitutes.

More certified teachers needed

Nancy Christensen, the associate professor of education who runs Midland’s teaching programs for ed assistants and paras, said the goal is getting more qualified teachers certified.

The Westside district alone has 200 or so ed assistants, Haynes said, including many serving as helpers for special education teachers, general ed teachers and as hall monitors.

Using existing para-to-teacher programs, Westside expects to graduate about seven to eight paras this spring and 10-15 a year, she said. Each agrees to work five years in exchange for the aid. The length-of-service commitments vary from district to district.

Districts statewide are exploring higher pay, bonuses and benefits to lure new teachers and retain those they already employ, officials said Wednesday.

Maher said he understands they are “robbing Peter to pay Paul” by finding new teachers among the ranks of also difficult-to-hire paras.

“We need to fill both buckets, quite frankly,” he said.

LB 705 set aside $1 million a year for the program from the Education Future Fund. When asked whether he thought the Legislature might find more funding if the pilot program was successful, Maher said it appears more likely that school districts would fund such programs if they help find and hire teachers.

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This led to the creation of an education apprenticeship known as Prestige Professional: Parent to Parapro Pipeline. Selected participants from the mentor program are offered a pathway to become certified as paraprofessionals, in collaboration with local school districts and the , an East St. Louis nonprofit where Taylor is president. The goal is for them to be hired in schools in East St. Louis and neighboring towns. 

“When we encountered parents that entered into our Parent Mentor Program,” Taylor says, “we realized that these parents had much more to offer. And they had the capacity to learn a great deal more than sometimes what they have access to.”

Prestige Professional, which is based on a , had a soft launch in July 2020, after Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed legislation that with high school diplomas or GEDs to become licensed paraprofessional educators. The first parent signed up in October 2020, but with many students learning remotely due to the pandemic, Prestige Professional had a slow start. 

Now, though, the program can count about 176 participants since its inception, with more than 20 being involved at the start of this school year. Many mentors are parents of children attending East St. Louis’s , as well as neighboring Cahokia, Brooklyn and Madison, Illinois.

Around a dozen have been offered the chance to graduate to the Parapro Pipeline Program because, Taylor explains, they are interested in more hands-on opportunities working in the classroom and have shown a willingness to commit the necessary time. Some work full time outside of the districts, while others are going for their GED. The training program can last two years, though that depends on the participants’ schedules — something Taylor’s organization strives to accommodate. 

“They’re receiving training and learning in hopes of getting employment within the district,” says Keisa Garrett, District 189 chief of schools. She says she knows of two graduates of the program that have worked in instructional support and one who has worked as a district security guard. Another four are on track to join them, Taylor says.

The participants split their time between taking classes provided by the nonprofit and working at the schools they are assigned to. The classes teach school-based curricula and content on English, math, science and psychology, with a particular focus on socio-emotional learning and Individualized Education Programs used by children who require special education services. Participants are paid $20 for each hour of their training.

Taylor says she wants the program to address what is affecting the children, especially with for the second year in a row that left teachers struggling. 

“Because the teacher in a classroom is saying, ‘I’ve got 28 to 32 students,’” Taylor says, “they really can’t stop and tap into some of those different learning styles. … Our teachers are overstressed and overworked. Some of the classrooms are too full. So when you have that Prestige Professional in that classroom, they’re really geared into what’s going on with that.” 

This means being aware of which students have an IEP and paying extra attention to helping them with classwork. It also means another pair of eyes noticing which students are disengaged and letting the head teacher know. Having such an assistant in the East St. Louis schools has made the workplace easier for teachers. The district’s has increased from 79.6% in 2019 to 86.1% in 2021, and Prestige Professional has won awards for its job-creation efforts. 

Participant Lizzie Osborne sees the benefit of helping teachers with the students who have IEPs. “They’re working and learning at a different pace and on a different level than the average normal children in school. It’s good to have somebody who can work with you at your pace. [The teachers] enjoy the help. … It’s rewarding for me because I’m helping [them] help [the children].”

Taylor explains that her program aims for the head teacher and the teacher’s assistant to work as a team. The Prestige Professionals first get to know the administrators at their schools before meeting with the teachers they will be assisting. 

According to Garrett, the district’s principals were immediately intrigued by the idea of Prestige Professional when she and Taylor visited the schools to form initial partnerships. She says word about the program and the positive influence of its enrollees “spread like wildfire,” with district leaders in Cahokia, Madison and Brooklyn taking interest.

The program started with an $8 million-a-year grant from the State Board of Education, and the allocation was recently raised by $18 million to expand it. This includes placing mentors in East St. Louis’s only high school for the first time and increasing the number of participants in the other districts. Osborne says 20 parents registered in one day in Cahokia over the summer.

As for the para trainees, Taylor says she has seen a change in the participants after they take the program’s courses and training at the schools. 

“They want to be part of the community they live in,” she says. “They want to be part of that school setting. They want to be part of the learning team. They’re not just sitting back being passive, and watching life go by.”