MESA, Ariz. (AP) – A student teacher shot among the students and counted how many needed his help with a history unit on Islam. An experienced math teacher hovered over a cluster of desks and coached some 50 freshmen on a geometry assignment. A physics teacher checked the students’ homework, while an English teacher spoke into a microphone in the front of the class and gave instructions to keep the students on track.
One hundred and thirty-five students, four teachers, one gigantic classroom: this is what the ninth grade looks like at Westwood High School, in Mesa, Arizona’s largest school system. There, an innovative educational model has taken hold and is spreading to other schools in the district and beyond.
Five years ago, faced with a high teacher turnover and declining student enrollment, the leaders of Westwood decided to try something different. In collaboration with teacher education professors at Arizona State University, they tested a classroom model known as team teaching. It allows teachers to lift the walls separating their classes across physical or classroom dividers.
The teachers share large groups of students — sometimes 100 or more — and alternate between group instruction, one-on-one interventions, small study groups, or whatever the teachers as a team agree is a priority that day. What sometimes looks like chaos is in fact a carefully orchestrated plan: Every morning, the Westwood teams meet for two hours each school day to create a personalized program for each student, dictating the lessons, skills, and assignments on which the student will learn. team will focus that day.
By giving teachers more opportunities to collaborate and gain more control over how and what they teach, Mesa administrators hoped to fill the workforce gaps and boost teacher morale and retention. Initial research suggests the gamble may pay off. This year, the district expanded the concept to a third of its 82 schools. The team teaching strategy is also attracting interest from school leaders in the US, who are eager for new approaches at a time when the effects of the pandemic have dampened teacher morale and exacerbated staff shortages.
“The pandemic has taught us two things: one is that people want flexibility, and the other is that people don’t want to be isolated,” said Carole Basile, ASU’s dean of teacher education, who helped design the education model.
ASU and surrounding school districts began exploring team education about six years ago. Enrollment in Teacher Preparation Programs across the country plummeted as more young people sought careers that offered better pay, more flexibility and less stress.
Team teaching, a concept first introduced to schools in the 1960s, appealed to ASU researchers because they believed it could revitalize teachers. And it resonated with school district leaders, who had come to believe that the model of a teacher teaching a lot of kids in the front of a classroom didn’t work.
“Teachers do amazing things, but it’s rare for a teacher to walk into another room to see what’s happening,” said Andi Fourlis, superintendent of Mesa Public Schools, one of 10 Arizona districts that have adopted the model. “Our profession is progressing so slowly because we work in isolation.”
Of course, revamping the teaching approach cannot solve some of the biggest frustrations many teachers have about their profession, such as low pay. But early results from Mesa show that team education can help reverse low morale. In a survey of hundreds of district teachers last year, researchers at Johns Hopkins University found that those who worked in teams reported greater job satisfaction, more frequent collaboration with colleagues, and more positive interactions with students.
Early data from Westwood also shows that the course was completed on time — a strong predictor of freshman graduation or not — after high school began using the team approach for all ninth graders. ASU has found that students in team-based classrooms have better attendance, earn more credits toward graduation, and achieve higher GPAs.
The model is not for everyone. Some teachers who have been approached about volunteering for a team have said they prefer to work alone. Team teaching can also be a planning nightmare, especially at schools like Westwood, where only some of the staff work in teams.
On a recent morning at Westwood High, the team’s four teachers and 135 freshmen began a boisterous routine.
They ignored the Halloween music blaring from the school loudspeakers, marking a new era for the older students. While their senior class peers shuffled to another 50-minute class, the freshmen continued until a second hour from work. Most students worked alone or in pairs on the day’s assignments, while others waited for the help of a specific teacher.
The team regularly welcomes other teachers into the classroom, for bilingual or special education services and other one-to-one support. But replacement teachers are rare, as teachers can schedule their schedules to accommodate the absence of their teammates.
Another advantage of teams, say teachers, is that they can help each other improve their instruction. During the planning session earlier that morning, English teacher Jeff Hall shared a critique with a physics teacher: Her recent lecture, on something she called “biology’s central dogma,” had confused him and their other teammates.
“If the science is too confusing for me, can you imagine the frustration you feel as a kid?” said Hall. But the physics teacher, he said, would not have known of the confusion on her own.
Hall, who is thriving as an improv comedian, had stopped teaching just before COVID. He did all kinds of odd jobs and realized what they offered that teaching didn’t: an opportunity to interact and collaborate with other adults. The need for a more stable salary convinced Hall to return to the classroom last year, but he only applied for positions to teach on a team.
“Why don’t we do this for every teacher?” said Hall. “Why did I – a student teacher with no experience teaching English – give the keys to a whole class of children on the first day? All by myself? That doesn’t work for anyone.”
Proponents of the ASU model recognize that it doesn’t work perfectly. It poses thorny questions, for example about how you assess four teachers on the performance of 135 students. And teachers from the Westwood team feel they receive too little training on the model.
However, students do notice a difference.
Quinton Rawls went to a high school with no teams and not enough teachers. Two weeks into eighth grade, his physics teacher dropped out — and was replaced by a series of subs. “I got away with everything,” the 14-year-old recalls.
That’s not the case in ninth grade, Rawls said. He said he appreciates the extra attention that comes with being in a class with so many teachers.
“There are four who are watching me all the time,” he said. “I think that’s a good thing. I’m not really wasting time.”
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This one story is part of Tackling Teacher Shortages, a collaboration between AL.com, The Associated Press, The Christian Science Monitor, The Dallas Morning News, The Fresno Bee in California, The Hechinger Report, The Seattle Times and The Post and Courier in Charleston, South Carolina, with support from the Solutions Journalism Network.
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The Associated Press education team is supported by New York’s Carnegie Corporation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.