Running head: HARD TO REACH AND HARD TO TEACH

Collaborative Education to
Students Who are Hard to Reach and Hard to Teach
Hyun Joo Jung
Hunter College CUNY

HARD TO TEACH AND HARD TO TECH

Abstract
The results show that collaborative education works well with cooperation among
families,

general

education

teachers,

special

education

teachers,

administrators,

paraprofessionals, and related service personnel applying each of their areas of expertise in
effective strategies to meet the needs of all students. This can fall apart if any of the members
does not collaborate. This might lead collaborative education to fail and the effort might not be
worth it and will not maximize students learning. The worst case is when the main character,
student, does not come to school at all because of the reasons associated with poverty, such as,
family issues and illnesses.
Keywords: collaboration, collaborative education, poverty

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3
Introduction

Living in poverty during childhood can be predictive of lower school performance,

increased likelihood of dropping out of school, and students with disabilities are twice as likely
to be living in poverty as students without disabilities (Doren, 2012). One of the biggest issues or
concerns of collaboration is students attendance. I interviewed three educators at the fieldwork:
two math teachers, Sam (Special Ed teacher) and Joanna (General Ed teacher), and Christopher,
the AVID Coordinator. Their interviews explain the reality and concerns of collaboration.
School
Edward A. Reynolds West Side High School (EARWSHS) is located at West 102 nd Street
Manhattan, NY. The school is an alternative transfer high school that is designed to meet the
needs of students that have not found success in their previous high schools. Yet, students who
have earned at least 10 credits are eligible to enroll. The school tried their best to accept students
who have been turned away or turned off by other schools through an interview process. Most
students at EARWSHS are aged between 17-21 years who had trouble finishing their previous
high school for various reasons. According to Principal Jean McTavish, the school has just about
any problem that you can think of that is associated with poverty including students who have
been in jail, been pregnant, are HIV positive, and lost parents to disease, crime, or violence
(Albrecht, 2012). However, most of the students I observed were friendly and unable to
recognize who had family or personal issues including disabilities. I did not ask either students or
any educators at EARWSHS who has which issue because they may consider it as intrusive. Few
of the students came to school, but they wanted to pass their classes in order to graduate.
EARWSHS provides Special Education Teacher Support Services (SETSS) and selfcontained classes for students who need additional support and specialized instruction for part of

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the day. In 2014, only 20% of Special Ed students at EARWSHS graduated within 4 years, and
41% within 6 years (Insideschool, n.d.). The educators at EARWSHS were working hard to
implement and adjust the methodology in order to ensure that all special needs students are
treated and respected as equals in the classroom. I never heard educators or staff including
security guards yelling at students.
EARWSHS seemed very welcoming, and friendly and healthy environment. I felt really
welcomed every time I entered and exited the school building because the security guards and
the lady who scans the students IDs always responded greetings to me with smiles. Both
students and teachers I worked with at two of the math classes and an AVID tutorial also
welcomed me every Thursday as well by calling me Jung, my last name. Plus, the school
provided friendly environment as possible. Students called out their teachers first name rather
than saying miss, mister, or teacher. The school has a class called family group, a group
guidance class where students develop a strong relationship with an adult in the building
(because some are abused by adults and do not trust them) and from that students begin to
expand those positive relationships with their peers and other teachers (Albrecht, 2012). It is
important to work collaboratively with family and community members, agencies, students, and
other professionals to design and implement abuse prevention programs (Salend, 2000).
Interviews
Christopher Blette AVID Coordinator
Christopher (Chris) Blette is the AVID Coordinator who also has 15 years teaching
experience in NYC schools, and is a social studies teacher, a special education co-teacher, and a
principal candidate in NYC schools.

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Chris gets his knowledge about collaborative practices at school. He believes that the
practices are expected as part of the teaching profession. Truly, teachers have always
collaborated, but now there is a push to supervise and administer this collaboration that is a key
element of professional learning and supports both teacher and student growth (NYC DOE,
2015). Chris said the Quality Review Rubric, a tool used to measure a schools performance
when reviewed by a superintendent in NYC DOE, quantifies collaborative practice and will ask
for evidence of collaborative practices. As a result of supervisors being judged on their teachers
collaborating, the practice has become more structured. He gets his information from his
administration who instructs teachers how they feel they should collaborate, when they should
collaborate, and the forms of that collaboration.
Chris mentioned that he always has enjoyed working with other teachers and learning
from them. He also added that the idea of a mentoring program for new teachers sets this in
place. As educators build professional relationships and have professional conversation, new
teachers learn from others around them. When I asked him what kind of experience he already
had, he replied that he has learned what works, what does not work with particular students or
types of leaners. Often he got an idea from someone else and adapted it to his family group, the
AVID tutorials, or social studies classroom practice and style. As with each student, each class
culture was different and the idea of one strategy all teachers collaborate on is counterproductive.
He also found that being forced to work with another teacher who was not into collaboration was
difficult and superficial.
Chris thinks that the definition of collaborative education is very vague and unsure of the
meaning of collaborative education. Nevertheless, he answered it to the best of his ability by

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two ways: first, teachers sharing best practices and giving advice, and second, collaborating in
regards to common planning of a curriculum.
Chris said if collaborative education means teachers sharing best practices and giving
advice, analyzing student work products, and developing ways to increase the performance of
those who did not learn and extend the learning of those who learned. He thinks that it is
essential to the teaching profession and said, We are not in a bubble and should not work in
isolation.
On the other hand, he said if collaborative education is in regards to common planning of
a curriculum, then that would be difficult since one curriculum or standard practice does not
work for all teachers and classrooms. I nodded during the interview because each child is
different and learns differently. Then Chris added, It is up to the teacher to determine this as a
professional. Collaborating on various methods is great for this practice, but the drawbacks are a
lack of standardization. A Common Core principle has been demanded by federal and state
governments to enhance accountability and standardize learning in America. The evidence of this
impact is still awaiting study.
Sam Morris Special Education
Sam Morris and Joanna Wnorowski have been co-teaching for three years together. Sam
has another job at Hunter College as a Special Education Professor of NYC Teaching Fellow. His
knowledge about collaborative practice came from a number of places. He claimed that his
earliest experience with collaboration started in his household as a child. He was the eldest of
three children and quickly learned that by getting his siblings to cooperate and get things done
such as cleaning toys and shelving books, collaboration was the key. Sam also added that his
educational collaborative practices came predominantly from on the job experience, but many of

HARD TO TEACH AND HARD TO TECH

the specific practices came from collaborating with colleagues, and to a lesser extent, his grad
school experience. He found that having teacher teams, and working in the same classroom with
another teacher broadened his scope of collaborative practices.
Sams experience in collaboration began in college where he became the director of an
after school tutoring program for at-risk youth. He said that having the responsibility of helping
students and directing staff required a great deal of collaboration. Beyond that, it was critical to
reach out to all stake holders including parents and teachers, and discuss students needs,
strengths, and the challenges they were facing in order for their experience to have meaning.
Sam described collaborative education as being able to interact and engage in others in
critical to a better understanding of any topic. According to Sams description, I realized how
significant collaborative education is for learning in any field. As Sam mentioned above, any
field can be early childhood, an eldest child interacted and engaged the younger siblings how to
clean up their toys together.
Joanna Wnorowski General Ed Teacher
Joanna Wnorowski is an Algebra teacher at EARWSHS. Joanna is currently enrolled in a
graduate program as a Teaching Fellow, while teaching at EARWSHS. She said she is constantly
collaborating with colleagues on teacher-teams. In addition, to working with members of the
staff, many of her collaborative practices come from her fairly new relationship with her coteacher, Sam. She teaches two of the Algebra classes with Sam and one alone. She said that there
was a paraprofessional before, but not anymore and Sam is her first co-teacher.
Other than collaborating with fellow students in her graduate program, her experience
with specific collaborative practices in teaching was limited. However, most of her experience
came from on the job training for a Teaching Fellow.

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Joanna believes that collaborative education is an important tool in reaching a broad

scope of students. Admittedly, her first co-teaching experience with Sam had some trepidation in
the beginning. However, as she is working with another professional in the classroom, she has
realized that she was able to reach a greater number of students and learned how value it is.
Portrayal of the School
EARWSHS is a school that creates a positive and caring environment for students that
have been failed by the classic high school system through the family group, and AVID. The
school seems to be trying as best as they can for anything that can benefit students education.
There are at least two educators in each family group class and AVID. During the family group
class, both educators and students build relationship through activities such as playing sports and
counseling each others concerns. During the AVID tutorial, educators provide materials that can
prepare students to apply for college and answer students questions based on their class
materials. In addition, Sam told me that since the students at EARWSHS came from other
schools where they have experienced some form of failure, the EARWSHS team hones in on the
strengths of all kids and teaches them how to use those strengths so that they build confidence,
which in turn, helps them in the learning environment.
Concerns and Suggestions
Chris said his area of concern is that teachers lose their autonomy to decide how to
collaborate and which issues are important when administration in a school decides the time,
place, content, and product of teacher collaboration. At that point, educators get a product, but
not an authentic product. The priority of student leaning can be secondary if there is an agenda
set by a higher power, such as state, local, and school administrative authorities. For effective

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collaboration to take place, I believe that teachers voices should be the strongest since they have
the most contact with students and the most gain from the collaboration.
During the observation, all math teachers I observed including who I did not interview,
Kristin (advanced math teacher), told me that about 30 students are registered in each of their
classes, however, only about 10-15 shows up regularly. Joanna and Sam mentioned the
attendance issue again by determining it as their collaboration concern during the interview.
They both wish the attendance was higher, but due to the circumstances such as family issues
and illnesses of many students, it continues to be a challenge. If students are hard to reach for not
coming to school, then collaboration is impossible as well; no students, equal no teachers, and it
implies no collaboration. My suggestion is reach the students during their lunch hours. For
example, many of the math students who have been missing several classes were easily lost and
could not participate in lessons for not having any prior knowledge to connect to the current
work. Therefore, instead of telling students to come to teachers during their lunch hours to
review the missing materials, teachers should visit students in their lunchroom and assist them.
This can prevent students from making excuses for not showing up in teachers classroom during
the lunch time. However, this suggestion will work only to the students who come to school, but
not to the students who never shows up.
Conclusion
Through the interviews, I learned how valuable collaboration is. In addition,
collaboration is possible among each others participation. Since the purpose of collaborative
education is to maximize students learning, an educator who contacts and interacts the most
with students should have the most autonomy to decide how to collaborate and which issues are
important or not. If the main characters, students, are the biggest concern because they are hard

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10

to reach, then teachers should reach them through what they provide rather than just providing
options and waiting for them to come. This individual reach will turn out hard to reach as
easy to reach. Then this will also imply hard to teach as easy to teach through
collaboration.

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Reference
Albrecht, L. (2012, April). Principal Jean McTavish prepares hard to reach kids for
college. DNAinfo. Retrieved from
http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20120423/upper-west-side/principal-jean-mctavishprepares-hard-reach-kids-for-college
Doren, B. (2012, July). Identifying mediating and moderating mechanisms to address
outcomes associated with poverty for adolescents with disabilities: secondary analysis of
data from the national longitudinal study-2. Board of Regents of the University of
Wisconsin System. Retrieved from http://ies.ed.gov/ncser/projects/grant.asp?
ProgID=45&grantid=1242
Insideschool (n.d). In InsideStats. Retrieved May 16, 2015 from
http://insideschools.org/component/schools/school/1321?Itemid=64
NYC DOE. (n.d.). In Choices Enrollment. Retrieved May 16, 2015 from
http://schools.nyc.gov/ChoicesEnrollment/High/Directory/school/?sid=3249
NYC DOE. (2014). In Citywide Instructional Expectations. Retrieved May 16, 2015 from
http://schools.nyc.gov/NR/rdonlyres/77B2E8A6-84B0-453C-BF17EB6D1D136C01/0/201415CitywideInstructionalExpectationsFINAL.pdf
Salend, S. (2000, July). Creating inclusive classrooms: effective and reflective practices (4th ed.).
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall