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Findings from the Joliet TownshipHigh School 2010 Co-teachingStudent and Teacher Surveys

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Findings from the Joliet TownshipHigh School 2010 Co-teachingStudent and Teacher Surveys

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Using Co-Planning Time: Strategiesfor a Successful Co-Teaching Marriage 

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Using Co-Planning Time: Strategiesfor a Successful Co-Teaching Marriage 

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Checklist for Co-Planning Meetings

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Could these be categorized by Active and Passive?

Active: Team, Parallel, Station, Alternative

Passive: One Teach:One Observe, One Teach: One Assist

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In their book, Interactions: Collaboration Skills for School Professionals, Marilyn Friend and Lynne Cook identify "co-teaching as a specific service delivery option that is based on collaboration." As a service delivery option, co-teaching is designed to meet the educational needs of students with diverse learning options.

Students at all academic levels benefit from alternative assignments and greater teacher attention in small-group activities that co-teaching makes possible. Co-teaching allows for more intense and individualized instruction in the general education setting increasing access to the general education curriculum while decreasing stigma for students with special needs. Students have an opportunity to increase their understanding and respect for students with special needs. Students with special needs have a greater opportunity for continuity of instruction as the teachers benefit from the professional support and exchange of teaching practices as they work collaboratively.

Co-teaching involves two or more certified professionals who contract to share instructional responsibility for a single group of students primarily in a single classroom or workspace for specific content or objectives with mutual ownership, pooled resources and joint accountability. (Friend & Cook 2016)

Six Approaches to Co-Teaching

1. One Teach, One Observe. One of the advantages in co-teaching is that more detailed observation of students engaged in the learning process can occur. With this approach, for example, co-teachers can decide in advance what types of specific observational information to gather during instruction and can agree on a system for gathering the data. Afterward, the teachers should analyze the information together.

2. One Teach, One Assist. In a second approach to co-teaching, one person would keep primary responsibility for teaching while the other professional circulated through the room providing unobtrusive assistance to students as needed.

3. Parallel Teaching. On occasion, student learning would be greatly facilitated if they just had more supervision by the teacher or more opportunity to respond. In parallel teaching, the teachers are both covering the same information, but they divide the class into two groups and teach simultaneously.

4. Station Teaching. In this co-teaching approach, teachers divide content and students. Each teacher then teaches the content to one group and subsequently repeats the instruction for the other group. If appropriate, a third station could give students an opportunity to work independently.

5. Alternative Teaching: In most class groups, occasions arise in which several students need specialized attention. In alternative teaching, one teacher takes responsibility for the large group while the other works with a smaller group.

6. Team Teaching: In team teaching, both teachers are delivering the same instruction at the same time. Some teachers refer to this as having one brain in two bodies. Others call it tag team teaching. Most co-teachers consider this approach the most complex but satisfying way to co-teach, but the approach that is most dependent on teachers' styles.

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Six Approaches to Co-Teaching - State Education Resource Center

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In their book, Interactions: Collaboration Skills for School Professionals , Marilyn Friend and Lynne Cook identify "co-teaching as a specific service delivery option that is based on collaboration." As a service delivery option, co-teaching is designed to meet the educational needs of students with diverse learning options.

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What effect does the quality of collaboration between partners and implementation of various strategies and co-teaching models within the learning environment have on student achievement?

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This includes my APA reference page.

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Questions for Co-Teachers to Consider | Qualtrics Survey Software

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Survey Software, Enterprise Survey software for enterprise feedback management and CRM solutions. Enables high-quality data collection, panel management and results analysis. Perfect for market research or CRM solution (Customer Relationship Management) integration. Free trial and consultation.

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Source 10: Sims, E. (2008, May). Sharing Command of the Co-Teaching Ship: How to Play Nicely with Others. English Journal, 97(5), 58-63. Retrieved November 14, 2016.

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Source 10: Sims, E. (2008, May). Sharing Command of the Co-Teaching Ship: How to Play Nicely with Others. English Journal, 97(5), 58-63. Retrieved November 14, 2016.

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Summary
In this article, high school English teacher, Emily Sims, share an account of her first year teaching. It was a sort of Goldilocks narrative. She taught with three different co-teachers, each experience a little worse or better than the other. Her experiences explained the benefits and challenges of a variety of co-teaching models and additionally debunked a number of co-teaching myths. The final page of the article offered a helpful list of Do and Do Nots for an effective co-teaching partnership. Sims' narrative warned against what she calls the "bend or break" philosophy about forging a positive relationship with one's co-teacher. If you refuse to bend, i.e. not acknowledge the extra time co-teaching takes, stay cold and uncivil with one another, etc. your students will break.

Notes
Co-Teacher 1: Team Teaching experience

Co-Teacher 2: “maintained our little worlds inside the classroom…(Sims) did all the planning, teaching, and grading, and (her) co-teacher put herself in charge of behavior management” State test scores were low, students took advantage of the situation, 6 of 7 Spec Edu students failed the course

Co-Teacher 3: “was a dream…strong friendship and teaching partnership...by chance we had the same planning period…could talk for a few minutes every day about the day’s events and future lessons. Common planning time made the difference for our team…(we) trusted each other"

Relationship between co-teachers is the key to the success of the relationship

Discuss preferences in advance

Emphasis that team-teaching is an equal partnership…”equal authority and responsibility”

-Preferences worksheet

-Sharing the paper load

-Acknowledge this partnerships requires extra time

“If you will not bend, your students will break"

"The English classroom…is a mine of opportunity for co-teachers…there is nothing a lone educator can do that partnered educators cannot amplify"

*My note: Article contains a list of Informed Practice tips and hints for building and maintaining a successful co-teaching relationship

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**The effect of high quality collaborative co-teaching partnerships on student achievement**

The effectiveness of teacher roles, relationships, and perceptions on successful models of co-teaching

how the characteristics of teacher collaboration contributes to teacher improvement and student
achievement

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Source 9: Chanmugam, A., & Gerlach, B. (2013). A Co-Teaching Model for Developing Future Educators' Teaching Effectiveness. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 25(1), 110-117. Retrieved November 14, 2016.

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Source 9: Chanmugam, A., & Gerlach, B. (2013). A Co-Teaching Model for Developing Future Educators' Teaching Effectiveness. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 25(1), 110-117. Retrieved November 14, 2016.

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Summary
This article presents a co-teaching model for developing teaching effectiveness, illustrated with a case example portraying the experiences of two doctoral students who co-developed and co-taught an undergraduate course in Social Work.
The two doctoral students involved in the case study attributed their success as co-teaching partnership to the following four elements:
-Institutional support from their doctoral program
-Communication and power-sharing negotiation
between co-teachers
-Course conceptualization
-Initial Planning
This study, though its context within the academic university setting is very different from my own middle school classroom, continued to illustrate the common threads of quality collaboration in an effective co-teaching partnership.

Notes
"we sought to be and appear equally responsible for all aspects of the course, even alternating whose name appeared first in documents
(e.g., the syllabus)."
-Course conceptualization
*Early conversations regarding the big ideas of the course helped these individuals align their objectives and expectations for the course, as well as build trust and confidence in one another as partners.
-Initial Planning
*The goal of the initial planning time was to model collaboration.
"We reviewed the calendar for the semester and divided the class sessions in half with
each one taking the lead role for planning half of the
class sessions. The lead planner would outline plans for
a particular session and share them with the co-teacher
in advance. This included asking the co-teacher to
perform certain roles during that session so that both instructors would be actively involved"

(7) Recommendations for Successful Implementation
of a Co-Teaching Model to Develop Teaching Effectiveness

1. discussion and resolution of specific issues at the outset of the partnership

2.  assessing one’s comfort with close observation and feedback

3. ongoing debriefing during the semester

4. communicating explicitly with students about co-teaching goals and methods

5. garnering full support from the institution

6. awareness of the additional time co-teaching requires

7. caution regarding imposing co-teaching on a reluctant instructor or pairing instructors of unequal status

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Source 8: Willis, D. (2015, Fall). A Reflection on Lessons Learned from Implementation of a State-Mandated Co-Teaching Model for Student Teaching. AILACTE Journal, 12(1), 53-72.

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Source 8: Willis, D. (2015, Fall). A Reflection on Lessons Learned from Implementation of a State-Mandated Co-Teaching Model for Student Teaching. AILACTE Journal, 12(1), 53-72.

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Summary
This article explores the "shift... from a
traditional (student teaching) apprenticeship model to a co-teaching partnership model
in order to assure more consistent clinical experiences for student
teachers, raise achievement levels, and improve retention and success
of classroom teachers".
"Cook and Friend’s Co-Teaching Model
Though  (was) recently institutionalized in Kentucky as the required
practice for mentoring all Kentucky student teachers"
St. Cloud Co-Teaching Model adopted by KY utilized Friend and Cook's 6 model strategy; however, added a seventh called, Supplemental Teaching. Following a co-teaching partnership model during student teaching in comparison to the apprenticeship model could prepare both veteran master teachers and new educators for more effective co-teaching partnerships with special educators, later in their careers. Teacher candidates who participated in the co-teaching partnership model of candidacy experienced increased success in comparison to their peers.

Notes
"Supplemental teaching is designed to allow “one teacher to work
with students at their expected grade level while the other teacher works with those students who need the information and/or materials re-taught, extended, or remediated” because their work is below or above the expected standard"

"research has supported
Friend and Cook’s (2003) argument that the flexibility of co-taught
classrooms increases instructional options for all students, improves program intensity and continuity, reduces the stigma for students with special needs, and increases support for teachers expected to meet individual needs of special education students"

" Inconsistent co-teaching outcomes
are commonly attributed to factors such as the co-teachers’
compatibility, previous training, and/or administrative support"

"unequally yoked partners—veteran teachers and novice student
teachers—might find it even more difficult to establish communication
and collaboration necessary for effective co-teaching."

Reflection One: Cooperating Teachers Value Co-Teaching
Training
Reflection 2: Co-Teaching Model Increases Success of Teacher Candidates-"The five colleges in this geographic region who collaborate to
offer co-teaching trainings have graduated a total of 315 teacher
candidates since 2013...not one of
our student teachers has failed the professional semester (student
teaching) as a result of the state’s new co-teaching expectations...(in regards to candidates who fail) a teacher candidate’s lack of knowledge, professionalism,
or work ethic does become more quickly apparent in the new
co-teaching model."

My note: Following a co-teaching partnership model during student teaching in comparison to the apprenticeship model could prepare both veteran master teachers and new educators for more effective co-teaching partnerships with special educators, later in their careers.

"Critical voices
continue to ask whether a co-teaching model adequately prepares
teacher candidates for independence later in their own classroom
when a partner is unavailable. "

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Source 7: Aliakbari, M., & Mansouri Nejad, A. (2013). On the Effectiveness of Team Teaching in Promoting Learners’ Grammatical Proficiency. Canadian Journal of Education, 36(3), 6-22. Retrieved November 14, 2016.

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Source 7: Aliakbari, M., & Mansouri Nejad, A. (2013). On the Effectiveness of Team Teaching in Promoting Learners’ Grammatical Proficiency. Canadian Journal of Education, 36(3), 6-22. Retrieved November 14, 2016.

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Summary
This was one of the more interesting articles I found in my research. The purpose of the study in this article was to determine the effectiveness of team teaching in a Canadian first grade ELL classroom.
In one group, learners received grammar instruction from
co-teachers, while in the other group grammar instruction was delivered by a single
teacher. The findings revealed that the difference in method of grammar instruction did
not lead to a significant difference in the participants’ performance.
This was the only study in my research that did not observe increased proficiencies or student achievement as a result of co-teaching. The authors believed that the student population's cultural considerations were the cause of this unusual result.

Notes
Cultural Considerations
"as a strict rule in the Iranian educational system, the single-teacher domination over the
class has been emphasized for a long time, and perhaps it suffered from the presence of
two teachers in one class."

"the co-teaching model in this particular environment did not contribute to better results in the grammatical proficiency than did the single instruction
approach. Therefore, it might be argued that the model is not suitable to be implemented
in every educational system in teaching grammar points"

" the successful implementation of the model requires
the meticulous consideration of cultural background, which might vary across different
contexts"

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Source 6:  Conderman, G. (2011, March). Middle School Co-Teaching: Effective Practices and Student Reflections. Middle School Journal, 42(4), 24-31. Retrieved November 14, 2016. 

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Source 6:  Conderman, G. (2011, March). Middle School Co-Teaching: Effective Practices and Student Reflections. Middle School Journal, 42(4), 24-31. Retrieved November 14, 2016. 

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Summary
In his article, associate professor of special education, Greg Conderman explains a number of important beginning steps and measures educators involved in a co-teaching partnership must take in order to ensure success for both their practices and students' achievement. One of the most important of these steps is to begin and maintain an open dialogue between partners regarding their views on classroom issues and their individual goals for the co-teaching experience in order to develop a trusting relationship. In the conclusion of his article, Conderman uses a real life example of an exemplar middle school co-teaching partnership to explain the three components of co-teaching: co-planning, co-instructing, and co-assessing.

Notes
Where to Begin:
"start by discussing their beliefs and expectations
about teaching and learning, classroom management,
and specific aspects of the classroom environment,
including noise and their “pet peeves” "
"They should also note each person’s areas of
expertise and agree upon specific responsibilities and the
research-based instructional methods they will employ"
"Co-teaching consists of three components:
co-planning
co-instructing
co-assessing"

Co-Planning
" Friend and Cook (2010)
suggested that planning meetings should have an agenda
with discussion topics following a three-part sequence:
1. Before the meeting, the general educator prepares a brief overview of curricular topics to be addressed,
such as chapters, stories, concepts, and projects.
2. During the meeting, co-teachers decide how they will address the content using the co-teaching approaches.
3. Co-teachers discuss individual students and their needs. "

"Teachers should also consider various methods to differentiate learning outcomes during co-planning. Some teachers use the pyramid planning tool (see
Figure 1), which indicates what all, most, and some
students are expected to achieve as a result of the
lesson or unit"
Co-Instructing
-6 Basic Co-Teaching Models
Co-Assessing
"Co-teachers can assess their
co-teaching efforts by frequently meeting for the sole
purpose of reflecting on lessons; gathering and analyzing
student academic or behavioral data; and soliciting input
from administrators, parents, and students."
**Article includes a description of a real-life exemplar middle school coteaching
team**

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Source 5: Hang, Q., & Rabren, K. (2008). An Examination of Co-Teaching: Perspectives and Efficacy Indicators. Remedial and Special Education, 30(5), 259-268.

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Source 5: Hang, Q., & Rabren, K. (2008). An Examination of Co-Teaching: Perspectives and Efficacy Indicators. Remedial and Special Education, 30(5), 259-268.

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http://search.proquest.com.library.marygrove.edu:2048/pqrl/docview/236294627/fulltextPDF/18B8829244804098PQ/4?accountid=28829

Summary
The purpose of this study was to identify teachers' and students’ perspectives of co-teaching and the efficacy of this teaching approach. Participants of the study were comprised of forty-five co-teachers and 58 students with disabilities, all of which were new to co-taught classrooms. The study highlighted the following as efficacy indicators of co-teaching: student satisfaction, aligned perceptions of teachers in regards to student achievement and teacher roles and responsibilities, and a firm belief from both content and special education teachers in the value of focused collaborative common planning. The results of this study demonstrated that students with disabilities who had been co-taught for 1 year had significantly higher SAT NCEs in reading and math than they did before being co-taught.

Notes
Efficacy Indicators of Co-Teaching
-Student satisfaction
-Perception of teachers in regards to student achievement and teacher roles and responsibilities
" each group saw itself as having more responsibilities than the
other for instructional and behavioral management"
"When roles and responsibilities
are not clearly defined, the co-teaching approach
has been “characterized by a domination by content
subject teachers”
"To teach effectively, co-teachers need to spend time
(a)getting to know each other
(b) sharing teaching skills,
philosophies, and perspectives
(c) co-planning
instructional strategies"
"The importance of
co-planning, therefore, should be considered an essential element of co-teaching."
"...all
teacher participants, 100% believed
that they needed a common weekly planning period and a comprehensive planning period"
"Ninety percent of the general education
teachers believed that they were primarily responsible
for monitoring students’ behaviors...the special educators
believed that they were primarily responsible for
managing students’ behavior."
"the development of a co-planning routine provides
teachers with the opportunity to share teaching expectations,
methods, and instructional strategies, which is an
essential part of effective co-teaching"
"The results of this study demonstrated that students with disabilities who had been co-taught for 1 year had significantly higher SAT NCEs in reading and math than
they did before being co-taught"

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Summary
In this article from the New Jersey Education Association, NJ Teacher to Teacher consultants, Nicole Intoccia-Pepe and Darlene Farrace-Prott, describe the characteristics and challenges of an inclusive classroom. The authors highlight the common threads running through successful co-taught classrooms: the parity, the participation and the professional learning of the two educators involved. Finally, the authors conclude their article by debunking popular myths of co-teaching and providing a list of Important tips for creating co-teaching climate and community.

Notes

Co-teaching: strategies for successful collaboration: How to achieve a successful partnership

"Successful co-teaching, or collaborative teaching, occurs when two or more professionals jointly deliver substantive instruction to a diverse, or blended, group of students in a single physical space."

"Through our experience and research we have concluded that the common thread running through successful co-taught classrooms has been the parity, the participation and the professional learning of the two educators involved."

"...co-teaching fails because teachers are thrown into an inclusive classroom together, without training and awareness of these (six) models"

1. One Teach, One Observe-

2. One Teach, One Drift

3. Parallel Teaching

4. Station Teaching

5. Alternative Teaching

6. Team Teaching

"Observations have shown that pairs that remain together for more than one year, and are given the opportunity to continue to build on learned practices and reflect on their successes and failures, grow in effectiveness."

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Source 3: Bacharach, N. L., Heck, T. W., & Dahlberg, K. R. (2011). What Makes Co-Teaching Work? Identifying The Essential Elements. College Teaching Methods & Styles Journal (CTMS) CTMS, 4(3), 43-48.

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Source 3: Bacharach, N. L., Heck, T. W., & Dahlberg, K. R. (2011). What Makes Co-Teaching Work? Identifying The Essential Elements. College Teaching Methods & Styles Journal (CTMS) CTMS, 4(3), 43-48.

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https://www.stcloudstate.edu/soe/coteaching/_files/documents/What_Makes_Co-Teaching_Work.pdf

Summary
While this study focuses on the co-teaching relationship between a student teacher candidate and his/her cooperative teacher, it was helpful to review the list of skills, dispositions, and knowledge necessary for successful co-teaching between content and special education teacher partnerships.  This article provides multiple side-by-side tables of focus group data from teacher candidates and their cooperating teachers in regards to What Makes Co-Teaching Work? or the importance of areas to the success of co-teaching student teaching. The common themes of open communication, trust, common planning time, and parity were demonstrated throughout the data in this article.

Notes
Cooperating Tchr: (Out of 32 items)

1. Sharing leadership

2. Planning together for co-taught instruction

3. respect/trust/honest and open communication between partners

32. ability to explain the benefits of co-teaching to students

Teacher Candidate

1. Students view teacher candidate as real teacher (could apply to Spec Ed/Gen Edu partnership)

2. respect/trust/honest and open communication between partners

3. Sharing creative ideas and materials with one another

32. ability to explain the benefits of co-teaching to students

Elements of Successful Co-Teaching (Ranked in order from Extremely Important to Not at All Important)
5.17 Planning
5.12 Communication
5.11 Relationship
5.06 Classroom Applications
4.24 Co-Teaching Knowledge Base

"The five broad areas identified as essential…are intertwined.

It is not possible to successfully co-teach (without a balance of all five identified areas)"

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Source 2: Ronfeldt, M., Farmer, S. O., Mcqueen, K., & Grissom, J. A. (2015). Teacher Collaboration in Instructional Teams and Student Achievement. American Educational Research Journal, 52(3), 475-514.

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Source 2: Ronfeldt, M., Farmer, S. O., Mcqueen, K., & Grissom, J. A. (2015). Teacher Collaboration in Instructional Teams and Student Achievement. American Educational Research Journal, 52(3), 475-514.

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http://aer.sagepub.com/content/52/3/475.full.pdf+html
Summary
The study in this article uses survey and administrative data on over 9,000 teachers in 336 Miami-Dade County public schools over 2 years to investigate the variety of collaborations that exist in co-teaching partnerships across their district and whether these collaborations predict and/or impact student achievement.

Studies found that teachers and schools that engage in high-quality collaboration experience increased achievement gains in math and reading. The research also demonstrated that teacher practice improves at greater rates when they work in schools with better collaboration quality.

Notes
"investigate the kinds of collaborations that exist in instructional teams across the district and whether these collaborations predict student achievement"
"average collaboration quality is related to student achievement"
"support policy efforts to improve student achievement by promoting teacher collaboration about instruction in teams"
"collaboration enables teachers to
strengthen their instruction, thus improving learning outcomes for students"

Areas of Highly Rated Collaboration
-Developing instructional strategies
-Discussing the needs of specific students
-Developing curriculum and/or materials

"collaboration about ‘‘developing instructional strategies’’
to be most helpful and significantly more helpful than collaboration
in other domains (i.e. state test results and formative assessment results)

"teachers who worked in schools with larger enrollments of ESE (nongIfted programs)
reported better quality collaboration about instructional strategies/curriculum
but worse quality collaboration about students. "

"different kinds of teachers indeed experience
different kinds of instructional collaboration. Female teachers report 27%
of a standard deviation better quality collaboration in general. "

"Teachers with 15 years experience or more...report, on average, 12% of
a standard deviation higher level of collaboration about assessment."

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Co‐Teaching:  Classroom Partnerships to Ensure the Success of ALL Students

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Co‐Teaching:  Classroom Partnerships to Ensure the Success of ALL Students

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Common Themes of High Quality Collaborative Co-Teaching Partnerships

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Common Themes of High Quality Collaborative Co-Teaching Partnerships

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-voluntary educator participation in the co-teaching partnership (no one is forced into the relationship)

-full support of administration/institution

-programming/scheduling logistics allow for consistent, focused co-planning time

-open, honest communication between partners characterized by trust and confidence in one another's abilities and perspectives

-co-planning time focuses on highly rated areas of helpfulness (curriculum development, instructional strategies, individ. student needs)

-parity: (the state or condition of being equal, especially regarding status or pay) the participation and professional learning of the two educators involved.

-general education teacher is the content area expert while the special education teacher is the strategy expert

-school culture maintains an ongoing commitment to inclusion (opportunity for PD, common planning time, partnerships are sustained for more than one school year)

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Three topics most commonly addressed as co-teaching programs and practices are studied

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Three topics most commonly addressed as co-teaching programs and practices are studied

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(a) teachers' roles and relationships, including their perceptions of co-teaching and its impact and effectiveness

(b) issues related to program logistics, including common planning for co-teachers and scheduling students into co-taught classes

(c) the impact of co-teaching on student learning, behavior, and perceptions, including academic achievement, attendance, and discipline reports.

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Source 1: Friend, M., Cook, L., Hurley-Chamberlain, D., & Shamberger, C. (2010). Co-Teaching: An Illustration of the Complexity of Collaboration in Special Education. Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation, 20(1), 9-27. 

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Source 1: Friend, M., Cook, L., Hurley-Chamberlain, D., & Shamberger, C. (2010). Co-Teaching: An Illustration of the Complexity of Collaboration in Special Education. Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation, 20(1), 9-27. 

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Summary
In this article, the authors describe, in detail, the complexities of successful co-teaching partnership. The authors provide sufficient descriptions of the six models of co-teaching commonly used in collaborative co-teaching partnerships. The authors provide evidence illustrating both frequently cited challenges of a co-teaching partnership and strategies for developing successful collaboration between partners.

Notes
"The future of co-teaching may be dependent on increasing the quantity and quality of research on it and placing co-teaching in the larger context of school reform and improvement"

"co-teaching illustrates the complexity of conceptualizing and studying collaboration in special education"

"Contributing to the admittedly equivocal evidence base for co-teaching are...lack of professional preparation, and dilemmas related to situating co-teaching in a supportive, collaborative school culture."

--Professional Roles and Relationships
"that special educators tended to take on the role of helper rather than co-teacher, partly due to their lack of content knowledge."

"researchers found that general education teachers spent significantly less time interacting with students with disabilities when a special educator was present in the classroom."

-Program Logistics
"When the teachers were asked for items to include in a “dream list” of special educator responsibilities, they noted common planning time on at least a weekly basis as a critical factor. Even after discussion of the feasibility of all items noted, planning time (at least twice per month) remained on the list as crucial."

Student Outcomes in Co-Teaching
"students with learning disabilities in co-taught classes performed better on measures such as report card grades and attendance than students in single-teacher classes. However, student performance on high-stakes tests was comparable across the types of classes. Idol (2006) likewise reported that scores on high-stakes tests were little affected by co-teaching, and this was true both for students with and without disabilities."

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Although collaboration among service providers has been a hallmark of special education almost since its inception, co-teaching, the sharing of instruction by a general education teacher and a special education teacher or another specialist in a general education class that includes students with disabilities, is a relatively recent application. As a result of recent federal legislation and related policy changes, co-teaching has evolved rapidly as a strategy for ensuring that these students have access to the same curriculum as other students while still receiving the specialized instruction to which they are entitled.

Despite considerable enthusiasm expressed by those who write about co-teaching and those who implement it, co-teaching illustrates the complexity of conceptualizing and studying collaboration in special education. Most inquiry on co-teaching has emphasized co-teachers' roles and relationships or program logistics rather than demonstrating its impact on student achievement and other key outcomes, and far more literature exists describing co-teaching and offering advice about it than carefully studying it.

Contributing to the admittedly equivocal evidence base for co-teaching are factors such as the still emerging understanding of this special education service delivery vehicle, inconsistencies in definitions and implementation, lack of professional preparation, and dilemmas related to situating co-teaching in a supportive, collaborative school culture. The future of co-teaching may be dependent on increasing the quantity and quality of research on it and placing co-teaching in the larger context of school reform and improvement.

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Co-Teaching: An Illustration of the Complexity of Collaboration in Special Education

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Although collaboration among service providers has been a hallmark of special education almost since its inception, co-teaching, the sharing of instruction by a general education teacher and a special education teacher or another specialist in a general education class that includes students with disabilities, is a relatively recent application.