GACE Paraprofessional flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

FERPA

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act protects student education records. Schools may release records only to eligible parties or under specific exceptions, such as a legitimate educational interest.

Mandated reporter

A person legally required to report suspected child abuse or neglect. In Georgia, school employees must report suspicions to DFCS or law enforcement rather than investigate themselves.

Least restrictive environment

The IDEA requirement that students with disabilities be educated alongside peers without disabilities to the maximum extent appropriate, with removal only when supports cannot be provided successfully.

IEP

An Individualized Education Program is a written plan developed by a team that specifies a student's present levels, goals, services, accommodations, and placement under IDEA.

504 plan

A plan under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act providing accommodations so a student with a disability can access the general curriculum; it does not require specialized instruction like an IEP.

Direct supervision

The requirement that a paraprofessional work under the direction of a certified educator who retains responsibility for planning instruction, grading, and instructional decisions.

Universal precautions

Infection-control practices treating all blood and bodily fluids as potentially infectious; gloves and barriers are used and exposure incidents are reported to the school nurse.

Positive behavior supports

A proactive approach using clear expectations, reinforcement, and teaching of replacement behaviors to reduce challenging behavior, rather than relying primarily on punishment.

Confidentiality

The obligation not to disclose student information to unauthorized persons. Discussions about students occur only with staff who have a legitimate educational interest.

Chain of command

The reporting sequence in a school: paraprofessional to supervising teacher to assistant principal or principal. Concerns are raised through this sequence per district policy.

Professional boundaries

Limits on contact with students, including physical contact, transportation, gifts, and electronic communication, which follow district policy and are documented when required.

Duty of care

The legal obligation of school staff to supervise students reasonably, prevent foreseeable harm, and respond appropriately to injuries or emergencies during assigned duties.

Georgia Standards of Excellence

Georgia's adopted P-12 content standards specifying what students should know and be able to do in each grade and content area, including literacy across subjects.

Georgia Milestones

Georgia's summative assessment system aligned to state standards, given in grades 3-8 and as end-of-course tests in designated high school subjects.

GELDS

The Georgia Early Learning and Development Standards, which describe expectations for children from birth through age five and guide early childhood instruction and assessment.

Formative assessment

Ongoing checks for understanding during instruction, such as questioning or exit tickets, used to adjust teaching before the summative evaluation of mastery.

Summative assessment

An evaluation administered at the end of a unit or course to measure whether a student has mastered the targeted standards, such as a unit test or state assessment.

Differentiation

Adjusting content, process, or product to match student readiness, interest, and learning profile while keeping the same standard as the instructional target.

Accommodation

A support that changes how a student accesses content or demonstrates learning, such as extended time or read-aloud, without altering the standard being measured.

Modification

A change to what a student is expected to learn or the level of the standard, altering the content or performance expectation rather than only the access route.

Scaffolding

Temporary instructional supports, such as models, sentence frames, or chunked tasks, gradually removed as the learner gains independence with the skill.

Learning objective

A specific, observable statement of what students should be able to do by the end of a lesson, aligned to a state standard and used to guide instruction and assessment.

Text complexity

The qualitative, quantitative, and reader-and-task considerations used to select texts appropriately challenging for a grade level under literacy standards.

Academic vocabulary

Content-specific terms students must understand to access a standard, such as sum, evidence, or ecosystem, which are explicitly taught and reinforced across lessons.

Progress monitoring

Frequent, brief measurement of a student's performance on a target skill to determine whether an intervention is working and whether instruction should be adjusted.

Small-group instruction

A delivery model in which the teacher or paraprofessional works with a subset of students on a focused skill while other students engage in independent or center work.

Center rotation

A classroom structure where students move among stations with different tasks, allowing small-group instruction while maintaining purposeful independent practice.

Instructional alignment

The match among standards, lesson objectives, instructional activities, and assessment items so that what is taught and tested reflects the adopted standard.

Data-driven instruction

Using assessment and observation results to identify student needs, group learners, and adjust instruction rather than relying on assumptions about mastery.

Reading fluency

The ability to read text accurately, at an appropriate rate, and with expression, which supports comprehension and is a common elementary literacy standard.

Number sense

An understanding of quantity, place value, and relationships among numbers that underlies computation and problem solving in elementary mathematics standards.

Evidence-based practice

An instructional or behavioral strategy supported by research showing positive student outcomes, which schools are expected to select when choosing interventions.