Making Data-Informed Decisions in the Co-Taught Classroom

Look beyond traditional forms of data to choose a co-teaching approach that aligns with your students' needs and goals. 

JACQUI STOLZER
Senior Professional Development Coach

Throughout my time as a coach at CPET, I’ve done a lot of professional development around co-teaching, and one problem I face is this: teachers, ever the committed and curious group, often want to try out whatever co-teaching approach we’re modeling and discussing right away — like in the next day’s lesson. 

You might be wondering: wait, why is this a problem? And I agree — this is a pretty good “problem” to have. I am so heartened when teachers exhibit this kind of eagerness and openness. At the same time, I worry that professional development on co-teaching can sometimes be interpreted as a “bag of tricks” to try and apply at random. We must remember that not all co-teaching models are equally effective in any given situation; we must select them thoughtfully and intentionally with our specific students, context, and content in mind. Ideally, and as much as possible, we want to choose a co-teaching approach based on a) our learning goals for students and b) what our data tells us about students’ relationship to those goals. 

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What do I mean by data?

Before I offer some specifics, I have to admit something: my former self — my early-career classroom teacher self — might have rolled my eyes at my current-coach-self writing an article on data-informed co-teaching. This is because I had a very narrow definition of data; I associated the word only with the scores that resulted from high-stakes and standardized testing. As a Special Education teacher, I was committed to seeing my students as more than a number, and so I resisted exclusively quantitative approaches to data analysis. 

As a coach, I am still committed to seeing students as more than a test score, but my definition of data has broadened over the years. While quantitative data analysis might have its place, I have come to understand student writing, student surveys, exit tickets, student conferences, and classroom observation as valuable data points that should inform instruction. As you consider the examples below, I encourage you to think of these things as data, too. 

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Using data to choose a co-teaching model

Here is a glimpse into how your classroom data might inform your co-teaching approach. Below are three of the six co-teaching models and how different data insights might lead you to choose that particular model. 

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You might use Station Teaching if…

• Your data suggests that students would benefit from review opportunities with certain topics before an assessment or project; 
• Your data suggests that students would benefit from gaining some background or context around a specific text or topic before digging in more deeply; 
• Your data reveals that your students have a wide range of interests in relation to a topic, and you’d like to incorporate as many of those interests as possible into instruction.

You might use Alternative Teaching if….

• Your data reveals that most of your students have reached a particular learning goal and are ready to move on, but a small group of students need further support;
• Your data reveals that most of your students need more time and support with a particular learning goal, but a small group of students are ready for enrichment or extension opportunities.

You might use One Teach, One Observe if…

• You simply don’t have the data you need on students’ progress with a particular goal to make an informed decision on what to do next;
• You’re getting conflicting information from various data points, and want to deepen your understanding of what’s going on with some focused classroom observation. 

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In reality, there are many factors that inform our decisions about our co-teaching approach: our physical space, our co-teaching relationship, our principal’s preference, or the amount of time we have to co-plan. Content-specific considerations are also crucial; not all lessons would be well-suited for a stations lesson, for example. I am not naive to these factors and the impact they have on teachers’ practices. At the same time, I think it is helpful to remember that our co-teaching approaches should be serving our students, and not the other way around. 
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