Third-graders at William Rainey Harper school on Cleveland’s West Side have their eyes front and center on teacher Robin Wilson, as she asks them to count how many pages are in a book during a summer school session.
But she’s not the only educator in the room. Teacher aide Cherylane Jones-Williams moves quietly from desk to desk, helping individual students who are falling behind and making sure they're staying on task.
Jones-Williams, the head of the paraprofessional chapter of the Cleveland Teachers Union, has worked at CMSD for more than 50 years in classrooms with students with disabilities. Her desire to work with those students started when she saw the way her cousin with disabilities was excluded from participation in most aspects of society when she was young.
"The special kids were always so happy, they were glad to see you," she explained. "And you really wanted to take care of them."
But she acknowledges the pay is low and the job is challenging. She herself started out making $1.25 an hour in 1973 as a swimming instructor.
Now, the starting salary for teacher aides with less than three years of previous experience at CMSD is just under $33,000 a year, before taxes. That’s about half the median household income in Cuyahoga County.
Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, the largest teacher’s union in the country, says many paraprofessionals are struggling to make ends meet. A 2022 survey from the NEA found almost 60% of those educators held multiple jobs. And the vast majority are women.
"We know that our paraprofessionals are just severely underpaid throughout this country," she said.
Paraprofessionals are a broad category of employees. At Cleveland Metropolitan School District, that includes "education aides," commonly referred to as teacher aides, who provide additional one-on-one support for students, "instructional assistants" who work with students with disabilities and a whole host of other education professionals who assist with technology, work with librarians, or work with English as a second-language students.
Challenges in the classroom, and out
Low pay, student behavior problems and a perceived lack of support led paraprofessionals like Roberta Cathcart, who works at Joseph M. Gallagher School on Cleveland's West Side with students with disabilities, to regularly speak out at school board meetings in 2023 and 2024.
"I've had things thrown at me. I've gotten kicked. I don't know. These kids just reach out and they just start slapping and smacking," Cathcart said in an interview this summer.
The Cleveland Teachers Union negotiated a three-year salary increase starting in 2024. But Cathcart says the pay is still not enough.
"It's hardly worth it. It's hardly worth the work that we do," she said.
And it can be hard for districts to find enough teacher aides amid a national shortage of educators, with national statistics suggesting one in eight teaching positions are going unfilled. Cathcart recalled being the only aide in a special education classroom several years ago, when two is generally the norm, depending on class size.
"I was doing twice the work. I mean, it was like a workout every day. I left work sweating, like drenched in sweat, and there were like five kids in the classroom," she explained. "Again, it was special needs. It was preschool, non-verbal. Some of these paras have to change diapers. I had to change diapers at the beginning of the year when I was working in that class."
Cleveland schools in a statement said it values paraprofessionals’ work and provides professional development annually to help educators better manage difficult classroom situations. Spokesperson Jon Benedict also rejected any suggestion that paraprofessionals have it any harder at CMSD than other district in the country."
“Paraprofessionals are vital to our schools, our students and our staff," Benedict said. "They perform a variety of difficult but critical functions throughout our district and play an extremely important role in the education of our students.”
National surveys suggest educators across the country are dealing with a rise in behavioral issues.
That includes Della Mae Cook, a teacher aide at Akron Public Schools. She also works with students with disabilities. She said she's been bitten, had her hair pulled and even been choked by students.
"It's just really difficult because we know that most of the time, their behaviors, it’s because they need something, but because of a lack of support, we can't always attend to them in that moment," she said.
Cook is thinking about quitting. It’s a hard decision; she says she loves her students, but she's juggling two jobs to keep afloat.
"It's a very rewarding job to be able to be there with our students when they hit certain milestones and just to share in the excitement with them in their growth is just an unbeatable feeling," she said.
Akron Public Schools in a statement said paraprofessionals received raises in the last three-year contract negotiated by their union, along with an adjustment to the minimum pay scale. The median pay for paraprofessionals in Akron before taxes is $28,665, although that's based on a 190-day work calendar. The national median pay for teacher aides was $35,240 in 2024, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics.
"We recognize the unique challenges paraprofessionals face and want to ensure they feel supported in their roles," said Stacey Hodoh, director of strategic communications and media. "Our Special Education Department provides continuous training to help paraprofessionals understand the diverse needs of the students they serve. This includes specialized training on working with different types of learners, as well as de-escalation techniques to help manage and regain control in difficult classroom situations. We are committed to providing the resources and training necessary for our paraprofessionals to succeed in their vital work."
A national 'Bill of Rights' for paraprofessionals?
Paraprofessionals' concerns have prompted the National Education Association to start a campaign for a paraprofessionals’ “Bill of Rights.” Union President Becky Pringle said it’s all about respect for educational service professionals, or ESPs as her union calls them.
"We begin with elevating the respect of ESPs and the important work they do. And then how does that translate? Well, it translates into higher salaries. It translates into better working conditions."
A federal version of this bill of rights was introduced in Congress in April of this year. And Pringle said her hope is that individual states and unions at districts across the country pick it up as a guarantee of increased pay, benefits and respect for paraprofessionals.
Cherylane Jones-Williams, with the teachers union in Cleveland, said there are other benefits associated with the positions. She noted the district encourages paraprofessionals to become full teachers by getting on the "career ladder." Paraprofessionals who take classes and get their degree and licensure receive increased pay, based on their experience, when they become a teacher.
In Akron, that's teacher aide Paige Lepley's ultimate goal. She's currently going to school at the University of Akron to become a teacher, while she works at Case Community Learning Center in Akron. She said she actually earned more working as a manager at a Starbucks before coming to Akron Public Schools.
But Lepley said she doesn't mind because she feels called to work in classrooms.
"I just always wanted to be a teacher," she said. "I had a first grade teacher, and she just made a really big impact on me. So I just wanted to have that impact on another student in my own classroom someday."
Improving pay and working conditions could encourage more people to consider education not just as a calling, but as a good career, Pringle with the NEA said.
