Assessing the self efficacy of paraprofessionals: The impact of the No Child Left Behind Act

The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not the route to No Child Left Behind certification by paraprofessionals (attainment of a college degree, attainment of college hours, or passing a local assessment) had any impact on their sense of personal and general teaching efficacy. A secondary objective was to determine which, if any, demographic variables affected the paraprofessionals' sense of efficacy. A convenience sample of paraprofessionals yielded 451 participants. A revised form of the Teacher Efficacy Scale-Short Form was administered as well as a demographic survey. Correlation and regression analyses were run to determine relationships among variables. The results of Analyses of Variance (ANOVA) revealed no statistical differences in personal or general teaching efficacy based on route to NCLB certification. Stepwise regressions were run on both personal and general teaching efficacy to determine which demographic variables had a significant impact on efficacy. Few of the demographic variables significantly predicted personal or general teaching efficacy.