The use of a paraprofessional to work with parents in a rural school

Abstract

A paraprofessional visited the homes of a random sample of children with disabilities from a rural elementary school. The paraprofessional was trained to teach parents basic instructional methods in math. Parents were asked to work on math with their son or daughter for ten minutes per day. The paraprofessional visited each home once every two weeks for 30–45 minutes for 12 weeks. Students were measured at the end of the project using an informal math test. Those students whose parents participated in the project scored significantly better on the test than those in the control group.