The effects of co-teaching on the English language arts achievement of general education tenth-grade students

Since No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and Common Core State Standards (CCSS), educators have placed greater emphasis on accountability of student learning. Districts nationwide implement instructional models that provide equal educational access to all students. Co-teaching is one approach to mainstreaming subgroups, such as students with special needs, into general education classes rather than in isolated remedial classes. Although the objective is to pair a special education and a general education teacher to support special education students, both teachers instruct classrooms predominately comprised of general education students. Research is limited on the effects of co-teaching among general education students in classrooms mainstreamed with special education students and co-taught with special education teachers. This study examined 10th-grade English language arts (ELA) classes co-taught by an ELA and special education teacher and tenth-grade ELA classes solo-taught by the same ELA teacher. The researcher aimed to determine if co-teaching affected general education student achievement in general education classrooms with mainstreamed special education students. Using independent t-tests and an ANCOVA, the statistical analyses indicated no significant difference in achievement on the 2013 California Standards Test (CST), 2013 California High School Exit Examination (CAHSEE), and 2012-2013 district benchmark assessment in ELA between general education students who received instruction in a co-taught classroom and general education students who received instruction in a solo-taught classroom.