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Ranks of teacher aides growing to meet growing needs Many work with children who have learning, developmental, emotional or physical disabilities Tuesday, February 27, 2001 By Gretchen McKay, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
With 15 children of varying ages and academic abilities all clamoring for attention, it's easy to be overwhelmed by the activity in Kathy Zabetakis' classroom of kindergartners through third-graders.
Some of the children in the Bellevue Elementary School class scribble away at individual desks while others work in small groups around a table -- all while Zabetakis instructs still another set of students in front of the blackboard.
Teacher aide Pat O'Neill, though, was the picture of calm on a recent day as she led 8-year-old Jay Hughes away from the reading-and-listening station near the door and over to his desk by the windows.
After placing a worksheet in front of the second-grader, O'Neill spent the next few minutes going from question to question with the child, occasionally pointing out letters and frequently praising his printing.
When Jay started doodling, she gently redirected his attention to the "Berenstain Bears" book he'd just read by pointing to the cover.
"Why do you think they ate too much junk food?" she asked. "What do you like to eat?"
One of three full-time aides in Zabetakis' learning support class in the Northgate School District, O'Neill is responsible for keeping Jay, who is autistic, on task and reinforcing the material he learns each day.
The job isn't easy, and O'Neill, an eight-year veteran, occasionally feels frustrated when the youngster doesn't comprehend. But it is also extremely rewarding.
"When you look at the progress they make and realize you're part of it, it's a great feeling," she said.
Three years ago, Bellevue Elementary had two full-time teacher aides; this year it has eight. "And the need is always growing," Principal Heidi Ondek said.
Once considered a luxury, teacher aides -- who are also called paraprofessionals, paraeducators, instructional aides and educational assistants -- account for a growing chunk of the public school work force.
In 1969, the nation's 57,418 full-time instructional aides made up 1.7 percent of the total staff in public elementary and secondary schools -- or one aide per 793 pupils, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
In 1997, full-time aides were 10.6 percent of staff, with 556,435 employed in grades kindergarten through 12. That's roughly one teacher aide for every 83 pupils.
Pennsylvania fell just below the national average, with 17,508 aides in 1997 making up 8.5 percent of total staff.
Pennsylvania Secretary of Education Eugene Hickok has touted teacher aides as a way to lessen the effects of large classes. While some aides do provide an extra pair of hands in a regular classroom with a large enrollment, many work with children who have learning, developmental, emotional or physical disabilities.
Nearly half of all aides are hired for special education programs, according to NCES.
Demanding work, low pay
The growing number of aides is a result of the 1975 federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which requires schools to provide free public education for disabled people between the ages of 3 and 21.
While there are plenty of aide jobs out there -- just check the want ads -- they're not exactly the most sought-after positions in schools.
The job can be physically and emotionally demanding. Pupils in wheelchairs must often be lifted; those with serious behavior problems can be physically or verbally aggressive.
Low salaries are a major drawback.
American Federation of Teachers research shows that aides' salaries have kept pace with teachers' salaries over the past 25 years -- both have increased about 216 percent since 1975. Still, many in the field argue the position is underpaid, especially when compared with teachers' salaries.
Estimates of average salaries for full-time instructional aides nationwide range from $15,592, according to the National Education Association, to $17,400, by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
For part-time aides, the average hourly wage is $9.46 nationwide, while in the Pittsburgh area, the average beginning hourly wage is $8.22, according to the Pennsylvania School Boards Association.
Teachers average $40,574 a year nationally and $48,457 in Pennsylvania. While regular classroom teachers typically have more formal education than classroom aides, some aides believe the salary gap shouldn't be so large.
"They are pretty essential in schools, yet in some cases, they're making less than people delivering pizzas," said Tish Olshefski, director of the American Federation of Teachers' Paraprofessional and School-Related Personnel department.
Olshefski attributes the low pay to a lack of true understanding or appreciation for what aides do.
"There's this mistaken notion that they're almost like volunteers, that they only do clerical-type work," she said.
That may have been true 30 years ago, when aides spent their time putting up bulletin boards and making copies, helping teachers with paperwork and monitoring the lunchroom. Today, aides are increasingly active participants in instruction.
Only teachers grade pupils and plan and teach new lessons. But aides frequently reinforce that learning, either one-on-one or in small groups.
Special ed teacher aides also often serve as personal care assistants, helping disabled or medically fragile pupils eat, dress and go to the bathroom.
Under the direction of teachers, aides might also give tests, record grades or act as intermediaries between teachers and parents.
"If I didn't have [an aide], I wouldn't be able to do my job," said Carol Schroeder, special ed teacher at Bethel Park High School. "In 42 minutes, it's impossible to go around and help each child individually."
"They're absolutely critical to schools running smoothly," agreed Marilyn Likins, co-director of the National Resource Center for Paraprofessionals at Utah State University.
Likins points to another reason for low pay: the lack of formal training and standards for the job.
While every state requires teacher aides to hold a high school diploma or its equivalent, 31 states require specific education or experience. And 18 states have credentialing or certification systems.
Kansas and Maine, for instance, have permit systems that require specific levels of training and designate certain duties, though in Kansas it applies only to special education personnel. Others, including Rhode Island and Iowa, have set standards for teacher aide supervision.
Compounding the problem, Likins said, is that despite the growing use of aides, the majority of teachers have never been taught about training adults in the classroom.
"This is not a part of the training in teacher prep courses," she said.
O'Neill's entry to the field is typical of many aides. Like many of her colleagues, O'Neill never formally studied to become a paraprofessional. After years of volunteering, she simply applied for the job after hearing about an opening from a friend who was an aide.
"She really enjoyed it, and I thought I might, too," said O'Neill, who has a high school education.
O'Neill's salary has increased by a total of $2.65 an hour over the past eight years. Because as a full-timer she receives full benefits, she believes she's adequately compensated.
"When you add it all together, it's worth it," she said.
Apart from a Crisis Prevention Intervention course offered by the district, most of O'Neill's training was learned on the job.
"And I'm still learning," she said.
Appreciation grows
The tide has begun to change, albeit slowly, as awareness grows about what aides do and as people understand they're part of the instructional team. Now, specific training for aides may even be written into a special education pupil's individual education plan.
Recognizing the need for qualified aides, a growing number of community and technical colleges are offering teacher aide preparation programs.
Community College of Allegheny County offers a 30-credit Educational Assistant certificate program at all four of its campuses.
The Allegheny Intermediate Unit started a 10-week teacher aide prep course in a welfare-to-work program two years ago. The training includes an internship. More than 100 people have been trained and the AIU gets more than 50 calls a week from potential trainees and school districts looking for qualified workers.
"Interest in the program has really grown," program coordinator Linda Lockett said.
The AFT is developing recommendations on national skill standards for teacher aides, Olshefski said. That should help to better prepare people for the job and eventually lead to higher salaries and a new respect for the jobs aides perform.
Locally, aides in several districts have been fighting for higher pay with varying success.
Seneca Valley aides received an 7 percent raise in 1999, which brought the starting salary up 35 cents an hour, from $5.15 to $5.50. By the end of the four-year contract, an aide with four years' experience will earn $6.60 an hour.
But that is only about half of what beginning aides now are paid in the Baldwin-Whitehall School District.
Butler Area School District aides will get 46-cent hourly raises each year under their five-year contract approved in November. In addition, the board increased the starting salary for aides nearly 16 percent, from $6.20 an hour to $7.18 an hour.
The Montour School District last year boosted the beginning hourly wage for nonunion teacher aides from $6.25 to $7.25. The raise, approved in March, was the first increase in five years. Full-time aides who are members of the union get $12,130 a year, or about $8.10 an hour.
Aides in the Washington, Pa., School District, also got a new five-year contract last year. Though wages were frozen in the first year of the contract, the hourly rate for a beginner jumps from $8.33 to $8.50 in the second year; by year five, the beginning salary increases to $9.28.
In Bethel Park, where beginning hourly wages are $7.39 for part-timers and $8.47 for full-timers, aides have worked without raises since their contract expired in June 1999. The union representing the aides is pushing for a four-year contract with a double-digit percentage raise the first year; the district, however, doesn't agree and no future talks have been scheduled.
"The impression we get is that they don't understand the jobs we do or care to," said Jan Sterrett, president of the Bethel Park Federation of Teachers' paraprofessionals and aides unit.
Gregory Karavanich, the district's human resources director and chief negotiator, has noted that raises given to other school employees this year are in the 3 percent range, and said it's unrealistic for aides to expect much more.
Some aides and their supporters, however, believe that the increase would make up for small pay raises in past years.
"The industry has never really examined the value of these people and salaries haven't kept up with the skills they have," said Mary Culbertson-Stark, an art instructor at the high school. "It's a shame."
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