Tapping into Hidden Talent: Building a Paraprofessional to Teacher Pipeline

Outline

Follow the stories of 5 diverse or multilingual paraprofessionals on their path to becoming teachers. Walk in their shoes as they encounter the challenges and triumphs of following their vocational dream of becoming a certified teacher.

Participation in this session will occur in two different ways.

One component will be highly visual and auditory. Each of the 5 participants’ stories will be presented in a visual format with audio clips from the participants embedded to highlight aspects of their teacher training journey.
-Stories will be highly compelling. For example, one participant came to the United States as a migrant worker, eventually became a paraprofessional who fell in love with education and is now training to become a bilingual teacher. Another participant is training to serve in the high-need, urban school he attended as a student himself.
-Participant voices are amplified to provide a window into the authentic experiences these teachers in training are facing. Their stories reveal obstacles and supports that have impacted them on their paths to becoming teachers.
(10 minutes)

The second portion of this presentation will be presented in the form of a large-scale board game. The game will simulate a paraprofessional’s journey to becoming a teacher. Conference participants will roll dice to encounter obstacles and achievements on their path. All examples in the game will be based on the real-life circumstances of our teacher candidates. (10 minutes)

Conference participants will be able to choose which format of the presentation they would like to participate in.

Supporting research

These resources may be helpful in providing more insight into the topic of Grow Your Own Programs.

Abbate-Vaughn, J., & Paugh, P. C. (2009). The paraprofessional-to-teacher pipeline: Barriers and accomplishments. Journal of Developmental Education, 33(1), 16.

Burnett, R., Espinosa, V. H., & Spies, P. (2019). Minnesota Grow Your Own Policy Spotlight: Organizing a Coalition for Systems Change. Teacher Education Quarterly, 46(1), 87-96.

Connally, K., & Dancy, K. (2016). Paraprofessionals could help solve bilingual teacher shortages. Washington, DC: New America.
https://www.newamerica.org/education-policy/edcentral/bilingual-teacher-shortages/

Connally, K., Garcia, A., Cook, S., & Williams, C. P. (2017). Teacher talent untapped: Multilingual paraprofessionals speak about the barriers to entering the profession. Washington, DC: New America.

Garcia, A. (2017). Building a bilingual teacher pipeline: Bilingual teacher fellows at Highline Public Schools. Washington, DC: New America.
http://na-production.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/FINAL_EnglishLearners_Washington.pdf

Garcia, A., Manuel, A., & Buly, M. R. (2019). Washington State Policy Spotlight: A multifaceted approach to grow your own pathways. Teacher Education Quarterly, 46(1), 69-78.

Gist, C. D., Bianco, M., & Lynn, M. (2019). Examining grow-your-own programs across the teacher development continuum: Mining research on teachers of color and nontraditional educator pipelines. Journal of Teacher Education, 70(1), 13-25. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0022487118787504

Johnson, T., & Lehner, E. (2021). Preparing paraprofessionals to become teachers: A study examining the effect of catalytic interventions. International Journal of Educational Reform, 30(4), 300-323.

Juravich, N. (2023). Reclaiming the Promise: Union Advocacy for Paraprofessional-to-Teacher Pathways. American Educator, 46(4), 28-34.
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1379765.pdf

Morrison, J., & Lightner, L. (2017). Putting paraeducators on the path to teacher certification. Phi Delta Kappan, 98(8), 43-47.

Williams, C. P., Garcia, A., Connally, K., Cook, S., & Dancy, K. (2016). Multilingual Paraprofessionals: An Untapped Resource for Supporting American Pluralism. Pathways to Prosperity: Growing a Multilingual Teacher Workforce. New America.
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED570876.pdf