Collaborating to Meet Challenges of Co - Teaching Common Core Standards--RESEARCH

Kentucky has led the nation in adopting Common Core Standards to revitalize education for next-generation learners and schools. To improve preparation of the state’s next-generation teachers, Kentucky has also mandated reform in training student teachers. This article reviews experiences of teacher educators from four Kentucky universities that are collaborating to ensure both quality and consistency in Co-Teaching Training, a new state requirement for all P12 cooperating teachers and university supervisors who mentor student teachers. The author reports cooperating teachers’ responses to their initial Co-Teaching Training; analyzes educators’ perceptions about a complementary relationship between Co-Teaching strategies and achievement of Common Core Standards; and reflects on mutual benefits of collaboration not only among the state’s teacher educators but also in collaborative partnerships between higher education and P-12 teachers so that Kentucky schools can meet the challenge of producing graduates who are college and career ready. By co-teaching with partners from universities in our area, we are modeling the strategies that mentor teachers must practice with teacher candidates.