The Effects of Co-Teaching on Regular Education and Special Education Students’ Standardized Communication Arts Test Scores in a Suburban Midwest Middle School

ABSTRACT In response to numerous mandates in the field of education, schools have found it imperative to ensure that teachers are incorporating effective instructional methods which meet the diverse needs of student populations within a single classroom. The co-teaching model of instruction is just one way educators have chosen to lead classroom instruction in order to reach all learners. In the co-teaching setting two or more teachers work together to deliver instruction to a heterogeneous group of students in a class. This research study was completed to determine if the co-teaching method featuring two content area teachers had a positive effect on student achievement as measured by a valid and reliable standardized achievement assessment. This study presented the history and overview of the co-teaching strategy and highlighted the implementation of this model in schools. First, the study used teacher evaluation data and administrator confirmation that the method was being used with fidelity. Then, the researcher analyzed archival data on 784 student scores on a yearly standardized assessment and broke down the data into subgroups. Finally, the researcher performed a limited mixed effects model (LMM) test to measure if student scores were higher in a co-taught with two content area teachers classroom setting when compared to students’ scores in a traditional setting. Although the students in the co-taught classroom setting achieved higher scores on the yearly assessments, the differences were not at a statistically significant level. Further study on implementing the co-teaching model with two content area teachers is needed. This instructional strategy should be studied in alternative settings, additional grade levels, and other content areas to determine if this method is beneficial for all students. Also, additional longitudinal observation of this cohort might be useful to see if the co-taught classrooms resulted in longer term effects on learning