Prior Learning Assessment: Situating Paraeducators’ Learning About Immigrant Multilingual Learners in Personal and Environmental Contexts

Drawing from two multiyear studies of an innovative multilingual learner (ML) teacher education program for paraeducators, we report findings regarding prior learning assessments (PLAs)—competency-focused portfolios documenting work-based learning and counted toward teaching certification and ML endorsement course credits—one component of an alternative route program for paraeducators. Findings provide preliminary evidence for using PLAs as a valid credit-earning tool for nontraditional candidates. Gender, ethnicity, and years as a paraeducator emerged as significant participant-level predictors of PLA performance, explaining only 34% of the variance. Qualitative results for select male participants suggested that lower self-efficacy was associated with negative judgments of capabilities and limited vicarious and mastery experiences. Higher self-efficacy drew on richer mastery and vicarious experiences of teaching immigrant MLs, especially in smaller, dual-language schools. Findings across strands suggest that richness of experiences and school support systems, not demographic matching per se, differentiated higher from lower performers.