Rhea J. Simmons, State University of New York at Fredonia
Kathleen Magiera, State University of New York at Fredonia

Friend (2000) describes effective co-teaching as a special educator and a general educator teaching together in the general education classroom during some portion of the instructional day, to accommodate the needs of students with and without disabilities. District administrators invited two university faculty into secondary co-taught classes to determine if effective co-teaching was truly taking place at all three high schools within the school district. Using the Magiera-Simmons Quality Indicator Model of Co-Teaching (2005), 10 classroom observations and 22 teacher interviews, researchers found varying degrees of implementation of the co-teaching model in each high school. Based on these findings, the authors’ initial suggestion was to provide updated training for all the teachers to more consistently apply the co-teaching model within the classroom. Other logistical recommendations included keeping effective co-teaching pairs together, providing common planning time, encouraging special education co-teachers to become part of content departments, and tracking student outcomes.

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