Instructional Assistant

Position Title:

Instructional Assistant

Position Location:
Penn Wood Middle School
Bargaining Unit:

William Penn Educational Support Personnel Association - 10 month

Effective Date:

August 25, 2025

Job description last updated: 04/29/2025

Position Summary: The Instructional Assistant supports students with various disabilities under the direction of the Special Education Teacher. The assistant helps create an inclusive, safe, and effective learning environment that fosters academic and social-emotional development. They will do this by working with individual students or small groups of children to help them achieve the skill levels of the class as a whole.

District Summary

The William Penn School District is Located in southeastern Delaware County and serves approximately 5,000 students who reside in Aldan, Colwyn, Darby, East Lansdowne, Lansdowne, and Yeadon Boroughs. We share a collective vision to educate, nurture and empower all students to become career and/or college ready.

Key Responsibilities & Essential Duties:

• Assists teacher in the daily classroom operation as directed
• At the direction of the teacher, conducts learning exercises with small groups of children
• Demonstrates understanding of students' problems and demonstrates initiative and creativity with students and their programs
• Follows through with prescribed behavioral management programs
• Assists students with use of mobility and/or weight-bearing equipment, such as leg braces, walkers, standers, and tricycles.
• Assists students with daily living skills, including feeding, grooming and dressing.
• Assists students with all aspects of toileting, which may include lifting on and off the toilet, diapering and the use of changing tables and mats.
• Assists with the supervision of children as directed during regular play periods and lunch as well as in the classroom
• Collects and displays suitable material for educational displays
• Other duties as assigned by teacher or administrator

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:

• Knowledge/awareness of own cultural identity and how this influences behavior, and desire to learn about the cultural identity of others.
• Ability to establish and nurture an environment that promotes cultural competence and equitable treatment of staff, students, and patrons of the District.
• Ability to understand and hold self and others accountable for promoting and attaining the goals as outlined in Focus Forward & Beyond.
• Ability to recognize that each person is a unique individual even as we celebrate their group cultural heritage.
• Knowledge of PA Core Standards and Eligible Content
• Knowledge of Instructional Planning Guides as it relates to the instructional block
• Knowledge of Digital Curriculum components
• Ability to courageously lead conversations focused on equity, closing opportunity gaps, and equal access to technology-infused lessons of rigor.
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with District staff and administrators, students, parents or guardians, outside agencies, and the public, in a multi-ethnic, multicultural, multilingual environment.
• Ability to receive and implement feedback to improve practice and systems.
• Ability to read, write, and comprehend simple instructions, short correspondence, and memos.
• Ability to effectively present one-on-one and in small group situations to staff, parents, students, and administrators.
• Ability to add, subtract, multiply, and divide in all units of measure, using whole numbers, common fractions, and decimals; ability to compute rate, ration, and percent and to draw and interpret bar graphs
• Ability to apply common sense understanding to carry out detailed by uninvolved written or oral instructions
• Regularly required to sit, walk, or stand; use hands to handle or feel objects, tools, or controls. Frequently required to reach with hands and arms; occasionally squat, stoop, and kneel. May need to lift or move students that are handicapped and adaptive equipment if needed.

Required Qualifications:

• High School Diploma or GED
• Evidence of obtaining Highly Qualified status:
  Apply here for HQ Exam with PaTTAN

Preferred Qualifications:

• 60 college credits or Associate's Degree
• 2+ years of experience in…