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Abstract

While the use of paraeducators has steadily increased over past decades, there is limited research on how school demographics impact the number of paraeducators working in a school. In this study, we use data from the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) to determine the relationship between school and district demographics and the ratio of paraeducators to students in a school. We find that schools with higher percentages of students with Individualized Education Programs were associated with a higher paraeducator-to-student ratio. Additional school-level and district-level racial and demographic variables were associated with the paraeducator-to-student ratio. Because paraeducators provide a different level and kind of support than teachers, these relationships present potential equity issues regarding the resources and opportunities available to students given different school compositional features.

Keywords

educational policy quantitative methods paraeducators

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School Composition and Paraeducator Staffing: A National Analysis

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