The Co-Teacher Relationship Scale: Applications for Professional Development

Abstract

Co-teaching is a service delivery model to support inclusion of young children with disabilities in early childhood programs. Despite widespread agreement that the co-teacher relationship is critical to success of this model, there has been little attention to quantifying variables inherent in this relationship. This study explored reliability of a self-rating scale (the Co-Teacher Rating Scale [CRS]) completed by 10 co-teacher teams. Findings are compared to reliability of the instrument when completed by two external raters (the program supervisors). Results suggest that the CRS, when completed by external raters, can provide useful data for summative evaluation. Co-teacher self-ratings would be appropriately used for formative evaluation purposes. Future research should focus on field-testing formative and summative evaluation applications of the instrument and investigating the cultural component of the co-teaching relationship.