Dive Brief:
- In its latest installment about school in a perfect world, The Atlantic asked educators and policy experts to describe their ideal vision of teaching, and several described team teaching arrangements.
- Southeast Asia Resource Action Center Director of Education Policy Rita Pin Ahrens, Parents for Public Schools Executive Director Catherine Cushinberry and Century Foundation Senior Fellow Richard Kahlenberg all described arrangements in which multiple teachers share responsibilities for a roomful of students, boosting collaboration and time for one-on-one attention.
- Carol Burris, executive director of the Network for Public Education, advocated for class sizes of 15 to 18 students with either two teachers or a teacher and a highly trained assistant, while Michelle Rhee, founder of StudentsFirst and former chancellor of DC Public Schools, suggested combination classes, which explore multiple subjects in one content area.
Dive Insight:
To many administrators, ideal teaching scenarios are hard to explore because of shortages in applicants as well as the funds to pay them. Finding one qualified teacher per classroom is often a struggle, which makes thinking about two an especially difficult proposition. In Utah, for example, an extreme teacher shortage prompted the state's legislature to pass a law allowing schools to hire teachers with no prior training or experience.
Digital technology and blended learning approaches can help teachers do more, however. Personalized learning programs give students the content they need at an individualized pace, and they provide data to inform a teacher’s instruction. Offering this type of work online as one in a series of classroom stations gives teachers, in turn, more time to work with individual students.