The mission of the West Chester Area School District is to educate and inspire our students to achieve their personal best.
The district serves more than 12,000 students across 11 elementary schools (K-12) in a 75-square-mile suburban, urban, and rural region in central Chester County, PA. The district includes West Chester Borough and seven surrounding townships, as well as Thornbury Township in Delaware County.
Learn more at www.wcasd.net.
The Challenge
West Chester Area School District’s annual paraprofessional evaluation form was originally a generic MS Word document that did not adequately reflect the unique roles, responsibilities, and competencies of paraprofessionals. This made it difficult for principals to provide specific, actionable feedback. Consequently, the process offered limited opportunities to recognize strengths, identify areas for professional growth, or support continuous improvement.
The Solution
The PAETEP Custom Forms Module provided West Chester Area School District with the opportunity to redesign its paraprofessional evaluation process to more accurately reflect Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) competency standards. By aligning the evaluation form with state-defined competencies and incorporating specific job duties and responsibilities, the district created a more meaningful and objective assessment tool.
The revised form enables principals to evaluate performance more accurately, provide targeted and constructive feedback, and identify areas for professional growth. Additionally, housing the evaluation within PAETEP gave multiple supervisors access to completed evaluations, improving transparency and collaboration. Through the use of PAETEP’s Usage Report, district administrators were also able to analyze overall evaluation outcomes, identify trends in staff performance, address areas of concern, and develop informed professional growth plans to support continuous improvement among paraprofessional staff.
PAETEP’s growing library of support staff templates includes:
- Administrative Assistant
- Athletic Director
- Business Manager
- Coach
- Paraprofessionals (including PDE’s “Credential of Competency for Special Education Paraprofessionals”)
- Custodian/Maintenance
- Food Service
- Information Technology
- Nurse (Non-certified)
- Security/SRO/School Police
- Supervisor of Custodian/Maintenance
- Supervisor of Information Technology
- Personal Care Aide (New!)
- Clerical Library Aide (New!)
- Director of Human Resources (New!)
To learn more about the Custom Forms Module in PAETEP, or schedule a personal demo, contact us!