How To Hire A Paraprofessional

A paraprofessional works within a school setting to offer support for students with emotional, learning, or physical disabilities. They serve under a teacher, and can work in preschool, elementary, middle, and secondary schools, helping provide social, academic, and life skills to students.

For the school, and especially for the students, having the right person in the paraprofessional role works towards better learning outcomes; the teacher is responsible for setting the curriculum and lesson plans, and the paraprofessional helps the special educational needs of the students that they are responsible for.

Hiring the right person to be a paraprofessional can be difficult; there are so many different skills and abilities that are needed for success and not all of them can be gained through professional qualifications or a college education.

In this article, we will look at what you can expect a paraprofessional to be able to do, the specific skills and abilities that they need to succeed, and how best you can test for these competencies in the recruitment process.

What should a paraprofessional be able to do?

The main tasks of a paraprofessional will depend on the needs of the student that they are supporting.

Some paraprofessionals might be expected to carry out therapeutic regimens as specified by psychologists, speech therapists and special education instructors, or they might need to provide translation services for a student that does not have English as a first language to help them engage with their educational experience properly.

At all stages, the paraprofessional must discuss the assigned duties with the teaching staff - this helps to coordinate the teaching plan and ensure that all students are given the opportunity to develop in the way that is most appropriate to their needs. In some cases, this might mean employing special education strategies aimed at the improvement of motor skills, sensory processing skills, and even things like language, cognition and memory.

Depending on the student, the paraprofessional might be expected to instruct students on daily life skills to prepare them for self-sufficiency in things like hygiene and safety.

At all times, the paraprofessional will be expected to provide supervision in the classroom and outside - during lessons and when completing recreational experiences. They will need to prepare the learning space to comply with safety needs and regulations, but also give the student the opportunity to explore.

Skills to look for in a paraprofessional

The skills of a paraprofessional are about effective communication and support, and they are not necessarily things that can be taught. The skills that help to support a student with special educational needs are not necessarily technical or hard skills; they are more like transferable soft skills.

• Instructing: although not a qualified teacher, the paraprofessional will be responsible for providing instructions to the students that they are supporting, and the skill of instructing will help them to be able to use the right tools to help.

• Speaking and Listening: understanding the often complex needs of students means that listening is obviously important - but so is speaking, especially when trying to convey more complicated ideas to the student.

• Critical Thinking and Complex Problem Solving: paraprofessionals need to be able to use critical thinking skills to decide on the best way to deal with a complex problem, and this is a skill that helps with finding solutions to complicated issues.

• Judgement and Decision Making: a paraprofessional needs to have sound and reliable judgment to make the right decision at the right time so that they can support their student - effectively.

• Negotiation and Persuasion: this skill is especially important when dealing with emotional support, as reaching an understanding with some students might not be as simple as providing an instruction - some students might need more careful handling.

Useful abilities for a paraprofessional

The abilities that make a paraprofessional successful in their role are about the way they work with other people and the way they approach a problem. Some of the abilities that a paraprofessional should have include:

• Written and Oral Comprehension and Expression: communication in all forms is essential in the role of a paraprofessional. Not only will they be expected to communicate with the student they are supporting, they will also need to be able to grade work and discuss teaching and progress with the teacher and the parents.

• Problem Sensitivity: some of the work that the paraprofessional needs to do is about keeping a student safe and happy, and that means they need to be aware of things that could become a problem or already are a problem. This isn't about solving the problem necessarily, but just being aware of it.

• Inductive Reasoning: as part of decision making, the paraprofessional needs to be able to spot patterns and make inferences based on unfamiliar information - the logical skill of inductive reasoning.

• Originality and Fluency of Ideas: when dealing with a student who has special educational needs, sometimes there needs to be an aspect of ‘thinking outside the box’ - and creativity, originality, and fluency of ideas feeds into this aspect.

• Language: in some cases, fluency and ability in a second language will be a necessity for a paraprofessional, especially if they are supporting a student that does not have English as their first language. This ties in with communication and interpersonal skills too.

Which soft skills tests could I use to hire a paraprofessional?

Soft skills are the transferable skills which mainly consist of the way we interact with other people. These are not easy to evaluate by looking at the details on a resume, but through certain tests you can see who has the right level of soft skills to be successful as a paraprofessional. Some tests that you could use include:

• Communication: the communication test covers the way that the candidate prefers to communicate in the workplace, and how they can use their communication skills to solve problems.

• Adaptability: dealing with the daily support needs of a student means that the paraprofessional must be able to demonstrate that they are adaptable and able to work well under different conditions and not need much in the way of routine and micromanagement.

• Interpersonal Skills: the paraprofessional will need to be able to work with different people, from the student they are supporting to the teacher that they are serving under, and they will also need to work with educational specialists and other professionals like speech therapists or psychologists - so they need to demonstrate that they have the right level of interpersonal skills for the role.

• Teamwork: the paraprofessional needs to be able to work as part of a wider team, supporting both the student and the teacher and working to the instructions of other professionals involved in the student’s development. The teamwork test demonstrates that the candidate can work in a team setting.

• Problem Solving: in the problem solving test, the candidate needs to demonstrate that they can use all available information to solve an issue quickly and effectively.

Which technical or aptitude tests could I use to hire a paraprofessional?

Aptitude tests are great predictors of success in a role because they are not necessarily about knowledge or learning, but about inherent abilities. For a paraprofessional, some of the aptitude tests that could be useful include:

• Verbal Reasoning: in the verbal reasoning test, the candidate can demonstrate that not only do they have a good understanding of the English language, but that they are able to glean essential information from written data and use it to make a reasoned decision.

• Numerical Reasoning: the numerical reasoning test is about applying basic mathematical skills and principles to solving problems. It not only evaluates basic numeracy but also the ability to use numerical data and manipulate it to find a reasonable outcome.

• Language: there are several different language tests that might be useful, including Mandarin or Spanish - these tests are designed to evaluate the level of confidence that a candidate has in using these languages in everyday situations.

• Abstract Reasoning: abstract reasoning tests are all about inductive reasoning - taking general information to reach a specific conclusion. Based on shapes and images in sequence, to pass this non-verbal test the candidate needs to show that they can spot patterns and make inferences.

• Emotional Intelligence: emotional intelligence is fast becoming understood as a great predictor of success in a career because it is all about the way a candidate recognizes and deals with emotions in themselves and in others. In this test, the candidate has to show that they know how different emotions present themselves and how to use them.

Our recommended test battery for a paraprofessional

For a paraprofessional, there are so many different types of tests that could be used to evaluate suitability - but using all the tests above would be a big ask of any candidate. The recommended battery of tests that we would recommend for this position include:

• Communication: in the communication assessment, the candidate is presented with several fictional but realistic workplace scenarios, and they need to choose the best course of action to take to solve the presented problems.

• Emotional Intelligence: in this multiple-choice assessment, the candidate needs to demonstrate that they recognize different emotions and how they might present in themselves and others.

• Abstract Reasoning: in the abstract reasoning assessment, the candidate is shown a series of shapes or images that are related to one another in some sort of sequence. The candidate needs to recognize the rule that governs the sequence and then apply it to the multiple-choice options to find the missing item.

• Languages: the language assessment is about demonstrating an understanding of spelling, grammar, and sentence structure in a language, as well as the knowledge of common phrasing and everyday speech. It is a multiple-choice test that allows a candidate to show their level of proficiency in the language.

For more details about what to look for when hiring someone to support a student in education, there is plenty of information in our paraeducator job knowledge test page.