The relationship between co-teaching and the mathematic achievement of groups of seventh-grade students with and without learning disabilities

The purposes of this study were to determine the effects of co-teaching on the mathematic academic achievement of students with and without learning disabilities and to determine the level to which final grade averages relate to Texas Learning Index (TLI) growth among groups of students with and without learning disabilities. Specifically, the objective of this study was to examine the relationship between students' least restrictive environment classroom settings and mathematic achievement over a three-year period.; Experimental groups were formed from a co-taught classroom in a South Texas middle school. In this classroom, two teachers, one a special educator and one a mathematics educator, co-taught groups of students with and without learning disabilities. Control groups were comprised of students from two classrooms, resource and general education, in which the teachers respectively taught mathematics.; TAAS mathematics raw scores, TLI scores, and final grade averages represented the collected data. Independent sample t-tests were performed on the TAAS scores, TLI scores, and final grade averages of students with and without learning disabilities in the three types of mathematics classrooms: co-taught, pull-out resource, general education. Pearson product-moment correlation analyses were performed on the TLI scores and mean final grade averages of control and experimental groups in the classrooms.; The findings of this study suggest that students with learning disabilities do not achieve greater academic gains by receiving mathematics instruction in a co-taught classroom rather than in a resource classroom. Students with learning disabilities in the co-taught classroom attained significantly higher standardized test scores, but their TLI scores and final grade averages both were significantly lower than those of the control groups of students with learning disabilities who received mathematics instruction in the resource classroom. With the exception of the case of significantly higher standardized test raw scores, the co-taught classroom in this study was not conducive to greater mathematic achievement for students with learning disabilities. This research also revealed that no significant difference existed in mathematic achievement for co-taught, experimental groups of students without learning disabilities when compared to that of the control groups who received mathematics instruction in the general education classroom.