By admin@bigwritehook.com 
Here is a number that should concern every parent, school board member, and education policymaker in the country: approximately 411,500 teaching positions across the United States are either unfilled or staffed by people who are not fully certified for their assignments. That figure comes from the Learning Policy Institute’s 2025 national scan, and it has ticked upward every year they have conducted the survey. The teacher shortage is not a forecast. It is a fact on the ground, happening right now, in schools your children attend.
But schools have not simply left those classrooms empty. In thousands of buildings across the country, the gap is being filled—partially, imperfectly, but meaningfully—by paraprofessionals. They are the classroom aides, instructional assistants, and teaching associates who work alongside certified teachers to keep the educational machinery running. And increasingly, they are the only trained adult in the room.
The Workforce Behind the Workforce
New York City alone reported over 1,400 vacant paraprofessional positions in the 2024–25 school year, with an 8 per cent decline in active paraprofessionals since 2020. In District 75—the city’s network for students with the most significant disabilities—the shortages are devastating. Schools are missing dozens of aides per building. Students in wheelchairs are pushed through hallways by a single staff member handling multiple children. Career skills programmes for students with disabilities have been cancelled because there are not enough adults to supervise them.
The median annual pay for a teacher assistant in the United States is roughly $35,000. A proposed federal bill—the Pay Paraprofessionals and Support Staff Act—would set a minimum salary of $45,000, at a cost of $25 billion per year. The fact that such legislation is even necessary tells you everything about how undervalued this workforce has been.
What the ParaPro Assessment Tests
The ParaPro Assessment is a standardised exam developed and administered by ETS (Educational Testing Service)—the same organisation behind the GRE and Praxis exams. It evaluates the reading, writing, and mathematics skills that paraprofessionals need to support instruction effectively. The test contains 90 questions across three content areas: reading skills and knowledge, mathematics, and writing skills and knowledge. Each section also includes questions about applying those skills in a classroom context.
Many states and school districts accept the ParaPro as one pathway to meeting the federal requirements for instructional paraprofessionals under Title I. For candidates preparing for the exam, working through a ParaPro practice test helps build familiarity with the question format—particularly the applied classroom scenarios that distinguish this exam from a standard academic skills test.
The Grow-Your-Own Pipeline
One of the most promising workforce strategies in education right now is the “Grow Your Own” movement—programmes that help paraprofessionals earn teaching degrees while continuing to work in their schools. South Dakota launched a state-funded programme in 2023 that allows full-time paraprofessionals to pursue teaching degrees online at a steep discount. The first cohort enrolled 90 participants; the second added 70 more. Florida has compiled outcome data on over 200 paraprofessionals who received tuition support, and the results show that when financial barriers are removed, these classroom veterans do earn their degrees and certifications.
The logic is straightforward: paraprofessionals already know the students, understand the school culture, and have years of hands-on classroom experience. They do not need to be convinced that education matters. They need a pathway that respects the work they are already doing while helping them formalise it with a credential. The ParaPro Assessment is often the first step on that pathway.
The Adults Who Show Up
In the public conversation about education, paraprofessionals rarely get the attention they deserve. They earn modest wages. They handle some of the most challenging students. They are the ones who stay after a veteran teacher resigns mid-year, who learn a nonverbal child’s communication system, who carry the emotional weight of a special education classroom day after day. And in a country where 74 per cent of school districts had trouble filling positions for the 2024–25 school year, they are, quite literally, keeping the lights on.