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GVSU Co-Teaching Model Increases Student Achievement

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A partnership, or “Co-Teaching” program, between Grand Valley State University’s College of Education and the Kenowa Hills Public School District seems to be moving in the right direction. So much so, that KHPS is hoping to expand the project following K through 3 student achievement. 

Experts say trends in the classroom to raise test scores made some school officials hesitant to have student teachers in the classroom.  So Grand Valley’s College of Education sought to change things by developing a co teaching model, placing GVSU student teachers in K thru 3 classrooms. 

“And so our thought was, what if we could roll up our sleeves and work with them to raise test scores. So that was the initial thought.”

That’s Sheryl Vlietstra.  GVSU’s College of Education faculty and program coordinator.  Student teachers worked full time for one year, working side by side with teachers.  The program stems from a study in the West Ottawa Public School District by College Of Education faculty members.  They researched whether having two adults working full time would increase student achievement. 

“Nobody ever steps away from working with kids during the day. And that has just given us the added benefit because two teachers working with 20-30 kids all the time,  is just double time when it comes to boots on the ground.”

Educators from Kenowa Hills were impressed with results of the study and last year implemented the co-teaching model with 10 Grand Valley students in 10 classrooms at Alpine Elementary.  Vliestra says the program’s been a success.

“The response we’ve received from Kenowa Hills has been extremely positive. They’ve seen their test scores rise and that’s positive. But beyond that they’ve seen things like, fewer behavior management issues or more time to have contact with parents. There’s just been a deeper level of service to the children and to the school in general. And because of that they’re very positive about our presence in the building.”

Vlietstra says with the success comes plans to expand the program to upper-level elementary grades in the coming semesters.

Jennifer is an award winning broadcast news journalist with more than two decades of professional television news experience including the nation's fifth largest news market. She's worked as both news reporter and news anchor for television and radio in markets from Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo all the way to San Francisco, California.