Research suggests students perform better when taught by teachers of their own race, yet in many urban school districts such as Seattle's, where minorities account for more than half of the enrollment, most teachers are white. On the other hand, more than half the district's teacher aides are minorities.

People just don't see paraprofessionals as able to be teachers, even though we have the quantitative evidence that they can," said Beatriz Clewell, who led a federal review of teacher-recruitment programs at the Urban Institute, a Washington, D.C., social-policy think tank.

Her research has found that when they are trained as teachers,
paraprofessionals are as effective as former Peace Corps volunteers or people who come to teaching from other fields, and parapros stay longer in tough schools than the other two groups. Studies show the retention rate for parapros in tough schools tops 80 percent after three to five years — about twice that of traditionally prepared teachers.

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