Cherrydale Primary School

Location
Cherrydale Primary School (K–2)
1201 Galloway Street
Steilacoom, WA 98388

Contact
Penny Jackson, Director of Pupil Services
Phone: 253-983-2506
E-mail: pejackson@steilacoom.k12.wa.us

Paraeducators Provide Group Reading Instruction at Cherrydale Primary

Stopping in the small town of Steilacoom, just south of Tacoma, is a refreshing break from the traffic-snarled freeway that joins Seattle to Portland. No fast food restaurants, gas stations, or Starbucks are present here, but 35 structures—including the state’s first library and courthouse—care more than a century old in the state’s first incorporated town.

Cherrydale Primary School, located up the hill from the National Historic District, has been newly renovated to provide a child-welcoming environment for the 350 K–2 students. Reading instruction has also been recently reengineered so that students who need additional intensive instruction to meet standards receive it.

The "reading continuum" that provides these children group tutoring in addition to their regular classroom reading instruction has influenced the way paraeducators are employed at Cherrydale. Prior to fall 2000, paraeducators were employed primarily as teacher assistants, with each one assigned to a teacher. Depending on the teacher, each assistant would have different responsibilities. They were not necessarily trained in the curriculum, and their work was not coordinated by anyone except the individual teacher.

During the one and one-half-hour reading block, paraeducators provide small-group instruction to Title I students in the class for 25 minutes. Five Title I and special education paraeducators work under the direction and supervision of the Title I specialist, Shawn Munsey, and the special education specialist, Danita Ross. Munsey and Ross direct the work of their respective paraeducators and meet together weekly to coordinate lesson plans.

The reading curriculum that paraeducators use emphasizes phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension skills. Students who need extra assistance also receive an additional 25 minutes of small-group instruction during their regular class time, for a total of two hours of block reading instruction.

Director of Pupil Services Penny Jackson, Munsey, and Ross all consider the paraeducators highly valuable members of the instructional team, now that the paraeducators are working with students toward specific educational goals. The keys to their effectiveness have been:

• Specific qualifications, criteria, and training for Cherrydale’s paraeducators. They are required to meet Washington state’s 14 Core Competencies for Paraeducators. The competencies describe the awareness, knowledge, understanding, and abilities that paraeducators must demonstrate in order to work with students with disabilities. (See www.paraeducator.com/html/ competencies.htm for a full list). They include ability to communicate with colleagues, follow instructions, and use problem-solving skills to work as an effective team member. Paraeducators can receive training that is scheduled during inservice days through Puget Sound ESD and the district. Upon successful completion of the training program, participants receive a certificate of completion. Paraeducators have also been extensively trained in the school’s reading curriculum, including at least two full days of initial training plus ongoing training.
  
  
• Excellent communication between teachers and paraeducators. Every Friday the paraeducators meet with the Title I and special education teachers to plan. All paraeducators have a folder for each child with whom they work that includes a lesson plan for the week and assessments. The teachers and paraeducators go over the students’ progress during their meetings, discussing what is and what isn’t working. Although there is no formal time allotted for the classroom teachers and paraeducators to meet, they get together informally when necessary. The classroom teachers also have access to the paraeducators’ folders for each child. Says Munsey, Title I specialist, "Teachers talk with paraeducators constantly about their students."
  
  
• Administration, board member, and school staff support. Munsey states that she values the paraeducators as fellow educators. She notes that initially the change from classroom assistants to instructional aides was "disconcerting" for some teachers. However, as the teachers began to see dramatic improvement in their students who are tutored, they became supportive of the paraeducator’s role. The paraeducators also see how their contributions contribute to measurable improvement in their students’ reading ability. "It is a more rewarding role for them," says Munsey. "The district has more paraeducators than most other districts in Washington because administrators here see the benefits that these well-trained staff members bring to the reading instruction," say both Munsey and Ross.
  
  
• Specific guidelines for the roles of paraeducators. Cherrydale’s paraeducators provide intensive reinforcement of reading skills under the direction and supervision of the Title I teachers. Classroom teachers also direct the work of the paraeducators. In one classroom, three groups are broken out into separate tables, a teacher working with a general education group, and two Title I paraeducators each working with a group. Other teachers prefer to have the paraeducators working in the hall outside the classroom for the 25 allotted minutes.
  

Jackson and the specialist teachers all see the great progress children are making with the benefit of well-trained paraeducators, directed by the teacher specialists. In Title I, the first-grade students advanced from the 28th percentile in fall 2000 to the 67th percentile in spring 2001. Second-grade students increased as well. One student moved from the 4th percentile to the 67th percentile in one year! Says Munsey, "I see these kids reading with greater fluency than before they started working with the paraeducators." As a matter of fact, both first and second grade doubled their fluency rates in one year.