Co-Teaching is Not Just Co-Existence

Last year I was called to the office by one of our assistant principals and was met by all three administrators. Their concern dealt with the way that special education teachers are viewed in the inclusion classrooms. What sparked this concern was the lack of knowledge on how to evaluate such teachers based on the new teacher evaluation standard. Based on observations they had found that my relationship with the regular education teachers was much more unilateral than others throughout the school. We discussed the fact that most regular education teachers are not schooled in the art of co-teaching. As we continued talking I found that neither were the administrators. I was given the challenge of collecting information to present at a grade level meeting on the strategies and implementation of a true co-taught classroom. Thank you High Point University and Dr. Christine Allred for providing such a wonderful class on collaboration and co-teaching. Armed with information and diagrams of the different co-teaching models I first presented my information to the administrators. Their reaction stunned me! They did not realize that there were so many different structured ways to co-teach. How can an administrator of a school that has 14 inclusion periods in a day not have knowledge of what good collaborative teaching should look like?

This is not an uncommon phenomenon I soon found out. My fellow teachers in the EC department had been given the role of inclusion teacher some years back but were never given the proper training to carry it out effectively. This lack of knowledge has caused many uncomfortable situations in the classrooms. Regular education teachers are very territorial and do not appreciate another teacher moving in on their “turf.” I have observed this problem the most but a close second has to go to the lack of content knowledge by the special education teacher. Most special ed. teachers know how to modify, chunk, scaffold, and differentiate the learning process but not many have clear knowledge of the Standard Course of Study (SCOS). This is mainly true with teachers that have not taught self-contained classes where the creation of lessons was necessary. Another item of concern in co-teaching in the inclusion classroom is the lack of common planning time. Each teacher has their own set of responsibilities outside of the classroom. Whether it concerns paperwork or discipline, the teachers tend to go their separate ways once the class is over.

In order for the co-teaching model to be effective we must first identify strategies that facilitate a productive relationship between teachers. Not only do we need to identify them but we have to figure out a way to train both the teachers and administrators on implementation. This requires a top down approach starting with the administrators and then using staff development, retreats, and utilization of local colleges and universities. The commitment to co-teaching must be universal. It should not be presented to just special education teachers. Efforts require the support of the entire faculty and staff.