There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an instructional paraprofessional. For example, did you know that they make an average of $13.9 an hour? That's $28,904 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 4% and produce 55,400 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many instructional paraprofessionals have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed interpersonal skills, patience and communication skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be an instructional paraprofessional, we found that a lot of resumes listed 21.2% of instructional paraprofessionals included classroom management, while 12.8% of resumes included special education, and 7.4% of resumes included student records. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the instructional paraprofessional job title. But what industry to start with? Most instructional paraprofessionals actually find jobs in the education and non profits industries.
If you're interested in becoming an instructional paraprofessional, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 47.2% of instructional paraprofessionals have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 21.1% of instructional paraprofessionals have master's degrees. Even though most instructional paraprofessionals have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become an instructional paraprofessional. When we researched the most common majors for an instructional paraprofessional, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on instructional paraprofessional resumes include associate degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become an instructional paraprofessional. In fact, many instructional paraprofessional jobs require experience in a role such as substitute teacher. Meanwhile, many instructional paraprofessionals also have previous career experience in roles such as administrative assistant or teacher.
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the right jobs to get there.
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of teacher you might progress to a role such as consultant eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title principal.
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
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The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 21.2% of instructional paraprofessionals listed classroom management on their resume, but soft skills such as interpersonal skills and patience are important as well.
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as an instructional paraprofessional. The best states for people in this position are Washington, California, New York, and Massachusetts. Instructional paraprofessionals make the most in Washington with an average salary of $35,025. Whereas in California and New York, they would average $34,633 and $34,576, respectively. While instructional paraprofessionals would only make an average of $34,138 in Massachusetts, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. District of Columbia
$38,886
Avg. Salary
2. California
$34,634
Avg. Salary
3. Connecticut
$33,255
Avg. Salary