Seminar for School Administration - What Should I See When I Walk-Through an Inclusive, Differentiated Classroom? Learn what best-practice, researched based strategies and methods might be used to engage all learners so that students improve test scores and reach their potential. Administrators will learn modelled strategies that they can actually use.
Train-the-Trainer and Professional Development Kits have had a positive lasting effects that provide growth opportunities that carry over into practice. They became very popular with schools and districts interested in training key staff to mentor and support other staff.
Well, here's the nitty-gritty: No matter what the research says, the label is often wrong. What I mean by that is: School districts who put two teachers in an 'inclusive' classroom can CALL it co-teaching, yet, it may not be CO-teaching at all. And, if it is called co-teaching on paper simply because two bodies are in the room and it doesn't work, it's decided that Co-teaching does not work. Read the article for what does work.
After co-teaching in inclusive classrooms and witnessing the benefits of inclusion done well in schools and school districts around the country, I am convinced that most students achieve more in the general classroom with an environment of excellent teaching. The trend towards tracking students in leveled classes based on test scores and ability has not been validated by credible research over time. The research on tracking/leveling is about as inconclusive and controversial as the research on homework. Find a study that claims students perform best in leveled classes and there's another one that states that students perform better in heterogeneous classes. Read how four schools faced the challenge of implementing RTI
Simple – the math teacher understood the math at a deeper level. In this case, she was able to present the math concept in ways that the special education teacher didn’t know because that was her area of expertise. She came up with four or five different approaches to teach the concept while the special educator was able to teach the larger group in the way that the teacher’s manual presented it. While that was fine for the main body of students who were at grade level, it didn’t work for the ones who were struggling.