Professional Growth Opportunities for Education Support Professionals (ESPPD)

January 11, 2023

If you’re an education support professional doing the essential work provided every day in our public schools by ESPs, you and your colleagues make up more than one-third of today’s school workforce, and you need and deserve professional development as much as any other educator. The National Education Association is making sure you have access to some very high-quality options.

Here’s a sampling:

Webinars. NEA’s ESP Learning Network offers a lineup of informational sessions you can see online, usually whenever your schedule allows. Some offer professional development certificates, too. Some of the topics for future webinars and those already recorded and on the NEA website:

Equitable Discipline and the Role of an ESP.
Avoid the Burnout: How Taking Care of You is the First Step in Meeting the Needs of the Whole Student.
Do You See Me? The Importance of Pronouncing Names Correctly.
Changing the Lens to Change the Outcome, which helps ESPs build resilience.

Many of the ESP webinars are also available in Spanish.

Peer mentoring. Nothing matches having a seasoned pro walk beside you as you grow in your skills and responsibilities. Effective mentoring can successfully support that growth, give you a greater voice in the workplace, and contribute to the overall school mission of student success. NEA has created a guide for establishing an ESP peer mentoring program and also offers an online course to guide you through the process.

Professional Learning Programs. ESPs have access to a variety of training and networking events, including:

ESP Professional Growth Continuum (PGC), which uses eight universal standards to guide learning and growth.
ESP National Conference, an annual event bringing together ESPs of all job descriptions together to build relationships, organize, and sharpen skills.
Building Winning Teams, a training package focused on developing effective paraeducator-teacher partnerships.
Anti-privatization support for affiliates where ESP members face the threat of having their jobs outsourced.
Micro-credentials, a short, competency-based recognition for all educators, including ESPs.

Publications. You can get brochures and downloadable documents with titles that include ESPs: Who We Are; Meeting the Needs of the Whole Student; Bullying Prevention; Making Connections: Engaging Members in Building Community Support; and more.

To learn more about all these opportunities, start with a visit to nea.org/esp.

Did You Know?

The average pay of Virginia public school teachers in 2023-24 was $65,830. That is $4,260 below the national average of $70,090.

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Professional Growth Opportunities for Education Support Professionals (ESPPD)

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