The Grow Your Own Teacher (GYOT) program addresses the shortage of qualified teachers by recruiting and training community residents to become qualified teachers. These programs look and feel like community-building strategies instead of teacher pipeline strategies. The GYOT initiative is not new, but the mainstream absorption of the GYOT…

Background: Over the past several years, numerous news stories have highlighted school districts' struggles in attracting personnel to adequately staff their schools. While these stories provide important anecdotes, there is little comprehensive work that documents school districts' demand for teachers, paraprofessionals, and other essential…

Community colleges are key providers of early childhood teacher and paraprofessional education, and their programs include content knowledge that helps future educators work effectively with young children with and without disabilities in inclusive environments. In this article, we describe the Advancing Community College Efforts in…

This paper examines the role of teaching assistants and other personnel on student outcomes in elementary schools during a period of recession-induced cutbacks in teachers and teaching assistants. Using panel data from North Carolina, we exploit the state's unique system of financing its local public schools to identify the causal effects of…

Paraeducators perform multiple roles in U.S. classrooms, including among others preparing classroom activities, working with students individually and in small groups, supporting individualized programming for students with disabilities, managing classroom behavior, and engaging with parents and communities. Yet, little research provides insights…

To help all students reach their potential, district leaders must ensure that every student has consistent access to excellent teaching. Opportunity Culture compensation and career path structures help make that possible, and this guide shows how. "Teacher Pay and Career Paths in an Opportunity Culture: A Practical Policy Guide" shows…

Examines the employment status of a nonprofessional school employee with reference to the procedural steps that a school administrative unit should use in dismissing him. The focus is on North Carolina case law, but the issues and the conclusions drawn are applicable to other states. (Author/IRT)

This report is based upon one component of an Elementary Secondary Education Act Title I project in the Lenoir County, North Carolina, public schools for the 1973-74 school term. Programed Tutoring was developed as a supplement to classroom teaching. The three basic skills of reading (sight reading, word analysis, and comprehension) are broken…

This conference report includes summaries of the following presentations: (1) "Overview and Opening Remarks" (Elridge W. McMillen); (2) Luncheon Address: "Diversity Equals Quality" (Joseph Vaughan); (3) "Overview of North Carolina Consortium Projects" (Nathaniel Jackson); (4) Session 1: "Academic Enhancement for…

A project designed to train paraprofessional personnel (technicians) who could materially assist elementary classroom teachers in working with atypical readers is reported in two separate sections. The first section, titled "Highlights of the Reading Teaching Technician Project," describes the background, operation, dissemination, and…