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Two teachers sharing space in a single classroom does not guarantee that they will function as an effective team. Recent research findings related to the efficacy of co-teaching indicate the need for more professional development to support teachers in building collaborative competence along with clear co-teaching roles and goals. So, how does a co-teaching team develop the mutual trust, respect, and support needed to create and to sustain an inclusive classroom? This article will describe how a structured, teambuilding protocol that is specifically designed to strengthen co-teaching partnerships helps general and special educators effectively collaborate and co-instruct. The step-bystep guide, called UNITED © , provides the scaffolding to promote co-teaching partnerships that produce positive outcomes for students with disabilities in general education learning settings.

Today, students with disabilities are identified earlier, attend school, graduate and go on to post-secondary education and jobs in larger numbers, and learn in more inclusive settings than ever in history (American Youth Policy Forum & Center for Education Policy, 2001). Special education outcomes have never been more positive. Too many students with disabilities, however, still do not graduate from high school, too many are excluded from challenging learning outcomes, too many do not successfully make the transition to independence, and too many end up living lonely, unproductive lives. These quality-of-life indices are inextricably linked to the quality of education that people with disabilities experience. Even though access to a free and appropriate education has been achieved, the educational quality of that experience remains problematic. The progress that special education has made in its three brief decades of existence is remarkable. Nevertheless, in the same spirit of social justice and advocacy in which special education was born and nurtured, special educators continue to advocate for improvements in the education of students with exceptionalities (Kode, 2002). Today, rather than advocating for inclusion in public education, special educators are working within the general education community to gain genuine access for students with disabilities to the challenging educational results that most individuals in our society take for granted. The push for research-based practice and results-driven accountability is being compromised by a crisis within the special education profession: Special educators labor under work conditions that contribute to attrition rates in special education that are twice as high as those of general educators (NCES, 2000). Recognizing this burgeoning problem, the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) established a CEC Presidential Commission on the Conditions of Teaching in Special Education. The Commission (Kozleski, Mainzer, Deshler, Coleman, & Rodriquez-Walling, 2000) identified three outcomes fundamental to ensuring high and challenging learning results for every exceptional learner: 1. Every student with an exceptionality receives individualized services and supports of caring and competent professional educators. 2. Every special and general educator has the teaching and learning conditions to practice effectively.

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