Teach Effectively!

Wischnowski, Salmon, and Eaton (2004) report an evaluation of co-teaching in Geneseo Central School District in western New York (US). Their purpose was “to implement and evaluate co-teaching as a means for successfully including most students with disabilities into general education classrooms.” I was pretty excited about this because of the word “evaluate” in that purpose. Sadly, the study didn’t closely examine what really matters: Students’ outcomes. Here’s what the authors provide to describe student outcomes:

In between the two years of the evaluation, state testing in the elementary and the middle school changed from more traditional (and some considered less strenuous) competency tests to more demanding assessments (especially in the amount of writing required) aligned with the New York State Standards. In both years, students with disabilities receiving instruction in co-taught classrooms achieved acceptable scores qualifying them for the next grade level. The evaluation team also analyzed performances on the Kaufmann Test of Educational Achievement that the district routinely administered in the two years of the study and found that students with disabilities were generally making progress through the curriculum along with their peers who did not have individual education plans. Report card grades that reflected performance on curriculum-based assessments also suggested that students with disabilities were achieving at grade level as long as classroom accommodations and test modifications were in place. There were some failures recorded for individual subjects in the middle school for a small percentage of students with disabilities, but none of these resulted in grade retention.

Data on student achievement collected in this evaluation suggest that the majority of the students with disabilities that received instruction in co-taught classrooms were not any less successful than when they received services in more restrictive environments. Comparisons were difficult to make based on state-mandated testing that changed between the two years of the study and with the different report cards used at different grade levels, but most students with and without disabilities did not demonstrate regression on achievement tests administered each year. Research that focuses on student achievement in co-taught and single teacher models as well as in co-taught and more restrictive environments is needed; however, under current legislation and practice, finding these distinctions in classrooms, especially for students with high-incidence disabilities, is becoming more and more an outmoded exercise. Evaluative approaches to these questions currently provide a practical alternative in lieu of this current and likely persistent lack of empirical data.

Wischnowski et al. explained that

Research that focuses on student achievement in co-taught and single teacher models as well as in co-taught and more restrictive environments is needed; however, under current legislation and practice, finding these distinctions in classrooms, especially for students with high-incidence disabilities, is becoming more and more an outmoded exercise.

I certainly agree that such data are needed. It would have been nice if Wischnowski et al. had provided more data. Apparently, there were some curriculum-based assessments that could have been aggregated and provided, for example. As it is, we readers are left with the assertion that students were “generally making progress through the curriculum” and “achieving at grade level as long as classroom accommodations and test modifications were in place.” Those statements are pretty soft. I’d really like to see the data. This is another time when we need Og Lindsley to shout, “Show me the data!”

Wischnowski, M. W. , Salmon, S. J., & Eaton, K. (2004, Summer). Evaluating Co-teaching as a Means for Successful Inclusion of Students with Disabilities in a Rural District. Rural Special Education Quarterly. Available online from FindArticles.com