Most Teacher’s Assistants have been removed from classrooms in LAUSD because there is evidently research that shows that they do not lead to increased student achievement. One’s first reaction to this might be disbelief. How could having an extra adult in the room not increase the effectiveness of instruction? However, when you think about how most TA’s are used it is not a surprise.
Misuse
TA’s are most often used to do jobs that teachers would do themselves if they didn’t have a TA…making copies, putting up bulletin boards, grading papers, etc. It’s easy to see how these activities improve the life of a teacher but do not necessarily impact students’ academic standing particularly in low achieving schools. In fact, they might contribute to the teacher becoming less efficient in time management because they can simply rely on a TA when they are unprepared.
Another ineffective use of TAs is have them work in small groups with your lowest students while you work with the rest. I’ve known some TAs who were outstanding and as good in their delivery of lessons as the regular classroom teacher. However, the teacher is the only one who is credentialed and trained using core programs such as Open Court. In my case, I have received about six weeks of Open Court training where my TA (back when I still had one) had received three hours.
The lowest students need access to you, their teacher, more than the other students. Don’t stick them with the least qualified instructional support and expect them to make great gains. Likewise, don’t have your strongest students always work with the TA. They may not need to work with you everyday but they need you to provide their enrichment.
A student also does not make gains by having a TA sit next to them and repeat the teacher’s directions during whole group instruction. Unless this is specifically called for in a student’s IEP, don’t have your TA do this! If a TA repeats directions I give to the whole class to individual students, that student learns that they don’t have to listen to my directions. This is a case where a TA is not only ineffective but they are detrimental to students’ success. Consistently, students would be working find without the TA in the room but for the hour when the TA was there they would constantly rely on them to repeat directions before they would do anything…sort of like a learned helplessness that it was my job to undo. If students are not understanding your directions then you need to look at how you’re scaffolding your instruction so that it’s comprehensible to students (using consistent language, pre-teaching, having visual support etc). The solution is not to hire an interpreter.
A Plan
The ideal use of a TA then is not to replace the teacher or take care of the messy jobs (like copies) but to provide an additional small group teaching experience with students. The key word here is additional.
Ideally, your lowest students get to work with you in small groups every day and if a TA is available they might get an additional exposure to the same material in a small group with the TA. The gifted students might follow up occasionally with a TA after receiving instructions from you. The key is that the TA does not replace your instruction but augments it.
If you’re lucky enough to have a TA use them wisely.
Please add your thoughts.
UPDATE: Linda Hartley, an actual former TA, disagrees with most of points. She offers valid concerns from the other side. I still stick with my assertions painful though they may be.
DITTO! Also, when you work with the TA, have prepared lesson plans written down and touch base with the TA daily if possible. Two minutes is all you need. “How did __ do in __?”
Can I add kerosene to your fire? In some communities the idea was to get local adults involve at the school. In dysfunctional districts, these positions existed more as a jobs program for adults than academic assistance for students.
Most districts I know have “banned” having aides do copying (it’s not a kosher use of Title 1 or Chapter 1 funds) since before I started teaching. I think that it is nice for teachers to have a “copy clerk”, but you need to be honest about what their job is, so no expectations are built about outcomes. One of the many joys of teaching computers and not assigning homework this year is how little copying I have to do.
I think sometimes we have to say that there are things that may not have a direct impact on test scores, but make teacher’s jobs easier, and will help you retain a better quality of educator. Twenty to one is one of those cases where teachers prefer it, and if it was (had been) done selectively, it could have advantaged Title one schools.
Alice, your point about retaining quality teachers resonates most with me. However, none of the best teachers we’ve had have been the ones who would leave teaching if someone else didn’t make their copies for them…they were the ones who had teaching in their blood.
Perhaps off-topic a bit but I’ve adapted my own teaching away from making copies whenever possible (believing most worksheets to be ineffective and wanting to cut copying as a happy by-product)…For vocabulary activities I taught my students to create mini books from blank sheets of copy paper. For writing you just need a ten cent Target notebook and for research and inquiry you need books, realia, and internet access (computer makes its own copies). CQ Board uses index cards, etc.
Hi, I do disagree with some of your points but I think the issues are well worth exploring. Thanks for an interesting post.
BTWAlthough I worked in schools for many years I’m not a TA anymore but a TA educator and resource provider 🙂
Mathew,
You may also be interested to read this article – “Be Careful What you Wish For…” about individual paraprofessionals assigned to students on IEPs published by the Council for Exceptional Children.
http://www.danceofpartnership.com/becareful.pdf
@Karen
Thanks for the link to the article. It’s an interesting and relevant read. While I’m specifically not talking about special education students in my post, the article does seem to support my reasoning behind a couple of my points.
Since I did not use a lot of copied material in my classroom, my para was not needed to do that, thank goodness. I did teach a lesson to the main group and then when I pulled lower ability students to the side, my para would work with the rest of the class and answer questions as they worked on assignments. Every afternoon, we would sit and reflect on the day and the students by talking about what worked and what didn’t. I counted on my para to give me an opinion from how they saw the day. We each had students that we just didn’t seem to bond well with and when the next day came, the other adult would tend to work with this student. It worked out well because the student was more successful. I would tell my students that my para was the other “teacher” in the room and they were expected to respect and follow directions from this person just like they would me. This relationship is very important to the success in the classroom. Thanks for a wonderful post!