, 1997). Relevant to ESL students and teaming between ESL teachers and mainstream teachers, the St. Paul, Minnesota. school district has replaced assigning ESL students to a full-day ESL track or having an ESL teacher regularly pull them out of class. Instead, mainstream and ESL teachers co-teach in the same classroom. With this approach, the school district has nearly closed the achievement gap between English-language learners and native speakers, based on state test results (Zehr, 2006).

George and Alexander (2003) add to the St. Paul, Minnesota approach by exploring school structure and the way teams are organized. These researchers mention that there's no single acceptable model for organizing teams; they can include small partner (two-teacher) teams, three-teacher teams, four-teacher teams, or grade-wide teams. Schools will have to select a model that best fits with its environment. George and Alexander have also identified characteristics of highly effective teams: student-centered focus; strong...
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