BOISE, Idaho — West Ada School District (WASD), the largest school district in the state, said they have students from 91 countries that speak 85 different languages. West Ada has programs in place to help multilingual learners, but the district decided to restructure their current program and began implementing something called co-teaching.
The West Ada School District along with the Twin Falls School District put together a conference to help teachers and administrators learn this new method or make it better.
Co-teaching is a method where two teachers, a primary teacher and a co-teacher, assist each other in helping integrate multilingual students better.
Starting Wednesday, about 100 teachers and administrators from many districts, including participants from Vallivue and Kuna School Districts, will learn about the practice of co-teaching and how it can be successfully implemented to support the diverse needs of multilingual students.
At the conferences, Andrea Honingsfield, the author of Co-Teaching for English Learners, will talk about insights, strategies and best practices of effectively co-teaching students.
WASD said incorporating this new method is a significant step forward to ensure inclusive education for all students.
"We have decided to kind of follow the work of Dr. Andrea Honingsfield as our guide as we move forward, but we're in education,” said Lisa Austin, the Federal Programs Administrator for Multilingual learners at West Ada School District. “You're in a constant pursuit of doing better for the kids that you serve, and we really feel like this is the right thing to do and the right direction to go."
The co-teaching method for multilingual learners is new to WASD this year, and it is the first year the district will implement this method. This is part of a three-to-five-year restructuring plan.
WASD used a magnet school method that would pull these students from their class and take them to a multilingual expert at one of the magnet schools.
The district said they didn't find a benefit with segregating English learners to a special classroom. The district said they plan to slowly eliminate the magnet schools and co-teaching will help with that.
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