A 1987 study, which involved 26 male and 805 female early childhood workers from 85 center-based programs in 20 states, was conducted to develop a social-ecological perspective on professional orientation and job satisfaction and on structural components of early childhood programs. Professional orientation is characterized by a person's emphasis…

Indian education programs in Canadian Northwest Territories (NWT) are based on the philosophy of communication, local involvement, relevancy. To implement these, the NWT Education Department has developed made-in-the-NWT curriculum handbooks -- A Curriculum Guide for K-6 and Learning in the Middle Years. In the NWT's 62 schools, there are over 100…

A privately funded project that placed reading aides in the first three grades of the public schools was initiated in a rural county of Mississippi. The program provided a paraprofessional assistant reading instructor who worked under the direction of a classroom teacher to strengthen and enrich children's work in small groups or in an educational…

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a two-semester junior college reading program designed to train teacher aides to assist professionals in reading programs. Descriptive data, including scores on the San Antonio College Test for Reading Aides and the Nelson-Denny Reading test, were gathered for 96 teacher aides. Analysis of posttests using…

The four training sessions for instructional aides working with migrant children in the Nampa, Idaho school district included objectives to facilitate: (1) awareness of aide influence; (2) aide self-confidence; (3) comfortable interaction between aides and school district personnel; (4) problem detection and prevention; (5) the aide's role in…

A study examined the role of paraeducators as liaisons to the local community. Phase 1 of the study involved interviews with four paraeducators and three teachers, each of whom was part of a rural teacher/paraeducator team that used the paraeducator's background in the community to enhance school activities. Phase 2 involved five group sessions…

Over the past 20 years, there has been a steady increase in the number of paraprofessional personnel employed in special education, Title 1, and bilingual education programs. Currently, there are approximately 500,000 paraeducators working in the United States. Data indicates that 95 percent of paraeducators are women working for little more than…

This study investigated the characteristics and beliefs of Head Start teachers and teacher aides and the classroom structural dimensions that are associated with Head Start classroom quality. The quality of classroom teaching practices was assessed using the Assessment Profile for Early Childhood Programs: Research Version. Teachers completed the…

The process of developing and implementing the Graduate Secondary Teacher Education Program (STEP) at Seattle Pacific University (Washington) included five steps: initial conception, establishment of program parameters, development of a working proposal, completion of the review process, and completion of the adoption process. Graduate STEP is a…

This 3-year study examined how primary grade teachers and their teacher assistants taught reading and the language arts to a boy with multiple disabilities in inclusive classrooms. Qualitative research strategies are used to describe and explain the boy's participation in literacy activities from kindergarten through second grade. Findings are…

A survey was conducted of 174 certified school personnel (including special education teachers, administrators, regular classroom teachers, vocational teachers, counselors, and aides) in the Mississippi Delta concerning their attitudes toward special education and toward students with disabilities. Overall, the educators expressed slightly…

The original impetus for Alaskan Instructional Aides was derived from the Alaskan section of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and was jointly funded by them and the Manpower Development and Training Act. Since that initial program in 1966, the BIA has funded 2 additional programs training instructional Aides for BIA schools in Alaska. More than…

In 1962, following the discovery of valuable natural resources in Northern Quebec, the Government of Quebec decided to commit itself to Eskimo and Indian affairs in the area, preparing these people who were already physiologically and psychologically adapted to the territory so that they could play a personal role in its development. An…

The competency-based training program of the Learning and Education for Exceptional Paraprofessionals (LEEP) project is described and the contents of five LEEP developed training modules are indicated. In addition, the term "paraprofessional" is defined, characteristics and duties of paraprofessionals are specified in terms of competencies, and…

This paper argues that the present structure of foreign language education is inefficient and needs to be restructured in the direction of differentiated staffing. A model of such an organizational framework is presented, along guidelines which include: involvement of teachers in decision-making; a hierarchy based on professional, preservice, and…