An Analysis of Professionals' Readiness to Supervise and Participate in Co-teaching Arrangements in Virginia Public Schools

The purpose of this study was to examine the survey responses of participants of collaborative models of instruction in order to determine the existence of constructs determined through the literature to be effective aspects of collaborative models. Further, the purpose of this study was to examine the participants' perceptions of their own readiness to participate in their roles as collaborative educators and supervisors as prepared by their professional preparation programs.

This mixed methods study used both quantitative methods to evaluate graduation data and qualitative methods to analyze open ended survey questions to describe experiences of teachers and administrators in three high schools in public schools in Virginia. Participating districts were chosen based on graduation data for school year 2009, in which participating schools were in the three districts with the highest graduation rates for students with at least a standard diploma. Teachers participating were a collaborative teaching pair from one school within each district chosen by the participating school's principal.

Data were collected from open ended surveys from participants and graduation data from the Virginia Department of Education Website. Results are presented in descriptive form from participants and graduation data.