The origin of teacher assistants

Published June 7, 2014

by Gary Pearce, Talking About Politics, June 6, 2014.

Here’s some history on teacher assistants – and a hint about why Senate Republicans want to get rid of them: They’re Jim Hunt’s creation.

In his first race for Governor in 1976, Hunt proposed what he called the Primary Reading Program. As Lieutenant Governor and ex-officio member of the State Board of Education, he had become concerned – as Senator Berger says he is today – that too many third-grade students couldn’t read.

So the essence of the Primary Reading Program was to put what Hunt then called “reading aides” into every K-3 classroom. Their job would be to focus on teaching reading.

Hunt, as was his wont, talked in great detail about the concept in the campaign. We ran TV ads about it. It became a centerpiece of his legislative program in 1977. It passed, and soon every K-3 classroom had an aide. They later were called “teacher assistants.”

The plan worked. Into the ‘80s and through the ‘90s – thanks also to bipartisan support for the reading program and other initiatives, including Governor Jim Martin – national tests showed North Carolina students improving faster than those in other states. (Exactly the kind of performance comparisons we won’t have once Common Core is dumped, by the way.)

Apparently, the driving goal in the Senate is to rid North Carolina of any whiff of anything Democrats did in education. And damn the consequences.

http://www.talkingaboutpolitics.com

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June 7, 2014 at 11:23 am
Tom Hauck says:

Thank you for an interesting column.

If we were doing so great in the 80's and 90's why was the program of teacher assistants (TA's)stopped?

The www.ncreportcards.org state report card for the school year 2001-02 shows that Grade 4 Reading had 28% (yes -- only 28)of the children testing at a "proficient or higher level on NAEP assessments". 28% of the children after all the extra TA's over 20 years does not seem like a very high number.

One thing that I did find on the Department of Education website was that between 2000-01 and

2008 - 09 the public and charter school students grew by 15.1%; the number of schools grew by 13.3%; the number of teachers, teacher assistants, and Assistant Principal - Teaching grew by 16.2%; total "all other" grew by 19.8% (including Unskilled laborers (86%) -- Technicians (84%) Consultant, Supervisor (79%).

Seems like they stopped focusing on teaching the children and started focusing on other things.

What caused that shift -- it was long before the Republicans took over the Legislature?

June 8, 2014 at 5:08 pm
Rebecca Fagge says:

Dear Mr. Pearce,

I'm sorry to have to tell you that your history is wrong. My first job as a certified teacher was as a Primary Reading teacher. That program hired fully certified teachers for 4 hours a day and we were paid half the salary of a full time teacher on a comparable "step", but had no benefits. Our job was to contribute directly to the reading skills of the class to which we were assigned. We did not do bulletin boards, check papers, or cut out things unless we just wanted to help the lead teacher. I think that there had to be positive gains for students when you put 2 certified teachers in the same room for a common purpose. During No Child Left Behind, many principals shifted to hiring more clerical assistants (not certified) due, in part, to new , mandated paperwork in K-2.

Having an assistant to help with paperwork at least part of each day is greatly appreciated. I have a difficult time believing that the NCGA plots in an evil manner to do away with anything done by a Democratic governor, including cutting back on assistants in grades 2 and 3. I know that the most recent cutback to teacher assistants in the budget was due to RttT funding drying up. Many assistants were hired using that money stream. In addition, it is also true that while many, even most, teacher assistants are a valuable help in K-1 classrooms (think tying shoes, helping with accidents, prepping activities, cleaning up activities, monitoring while the lead teacher tests and tests and tests), the whole point is to fund the people and programs that actually aim towards the goal of high student achievement!

You might want to do some deeper research into Common Core, also. As a 30 year teaching veteran I can assure you that, while there are pieces of it I could live with, most of it that I've encountered is developmentally incorrect, confusing to students and parents, and does not truly take NC closer to higher student achievement.

Sincerely,

Rebecca F.