Connecting High-Leverage Practices to Student Success: Collaboration in Inclusive Classrooms

Transform classrooms and student performance with evidence-based, effective practices

Two brains are better than one, as the saying goes, and this is especially true in education. Educators who employ effective collaboration and co-teaching greatly amplify student engagement, achievement, and growth, particularly for those learners needing extra support.

Written by two of the nation’s top experts in co-teaching, Connecting High-Leverage Practices to Student Success is an essential, reader-friendly guide for educators and instructional leaders who are passionate about creating truly inclusive classrooms where all students thrive— academically, behaviorally, socially, and emotionally. Inside, authors Melissa Jenkins and Wendy Murawski provide:

• Three clearly defined steps to build a strong foundation, leverage collaboration, and support students’ growth
• A laser focus on high-leverage and evidence-based practices for general and special education that optimize educators’ impact, including collaboration, instruction, assessment, and social emotional/behavior skills
• Seamless integration of practices within MTSS and RTI processes to meet the needs of all learners
• Countless and concrete samples, examples, tools, reflection exercises, and supplemental materials that enable you to move from theory to immediate instructional practice

Positioning collaboration as the catalyst to maximizing high-leverage and evidence-based practices for the success of all students, this easy-to-use handbook belongs on the desk of every teacher working toward a truly inclusive environment.

Melissa C. Jenkins, PhD, is an assistant professor of Special Education at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, VA. She brings over 18 years of public school experience to her role as a teacher educator, having worked in Virginia public schools as a special education teacher, instructional coach, and central office administrator. Melissa is dedicated to helping educators bring high-quality, inclusive practices to schools. She loves speaking and writing about collaborative practices, early mathematics intervention, and positive behavioral support. When not working, Melissa enjoys practicing yoga to find literal and figurative balance in life. She also takes great joy in big and small adventures with her family.

Wendy W. Murawski, Ph.D., MBA, MEd, EdS, is the Executive Director and Eisner Endowed Chair for the Center for Teaching and Learning at California State University, Northridge (CSUN), where she is also a Full Professor in the Department of Special Education and the Director of SIMPACT Immersive Learning. Dr. Murawski is the national Past President of the Teacher Education Division (TED) of CEC and an internationally known speaker and author, presenting in Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America. Her research focuses on co-teaching and inclusive practices nationally and internationally. She has published extensively around inclusive education, co-teaching, collaboration, and Universal Design for Learning, to include 18 books and numerous chapters, blogs, and peer-reviewed articles. She is the CEO of 2Teach^Ò Global (www.2TeachLLC.com), an educational consulting company dedicated to promoting inclusive education around the world. In her personal life, Wendy enjoys traveling with her husband, learning languages, reading, drinking merlot, seeing movies, going to Book Club, visiting her college-bound son Kiernan, and pretending she is going to work out.