One of the distinguishing differences of my charter school is that we provide students opportunities to learn at their challenge level. This has been difficult to define and also to implement. We’ve attempted to level the students as best as we can although it is very tricky.
One of the greatest problems with this leveling system is that accountability seems to be lost. As a colleague put it, I feel partially responsible for 60+ students and not fully accountable for any of them.
I only have a handful of my students all day. The rest are taught also by the other two fifth grade teachers in an attempt to challenge the students at their level. However, I’ve encountered the accountability conundrum these last couple weeks. I have a student from my home class that is performing poorly in spelling. I am not her spelling teacher yet I feel responsible since I am the one who will report her grades. I drafted an email to her parents last week when I recognized that she had two weeks of bad test scores, but I never sent it. I couldn’t offer any specific suggestions for their daughter, because I didn’t have any anecdotal notes. I spoke with the student briefly in the hall to attempt to find out information. I was still at a loss. Do I not say anything and trust that her spelling teacher is intervening?
I teach a split class for math of 15 students working out of an above grade level text book and 9 students working out of a grade level text. This means that 7 of my homeroom students are being taught by the other two fifth grade teachers. I just received emailed test scores from the most recent math test. Three of my homeroom students who are being instructed by another teacher scored D’s or F’s. One student only got half of the questions right. HALF. Am I supposed to intervene with these students? Or do I trust that this other teacher is re-mediating appropriately?
I’m worried about the academic success of the students. And I’m also worried about my professional success. The 7 math students and 20 Language Arts students of mine that are being instructed by the other two teachers will take end-of-level tests under my name. I may never teach them these subjects this entire year, yet their scores will reflect on my competency as a teacher as viewed by the state office of education and the federal government. How much do I trust these other two teachers?
Teaching My First Year 
In my humble opinion it is not about trust, it is about collaboration and teamwork. I worked in a Middle School for years and we always had common prep time with the people on our ‘team’ that taught the same kids… crucial in my eyes.
That said, if the time does not exist to sit together then just chat (my first choice) or email the other teachers. Send them a draft of your planned email (after chatting face to face) to parents and say, “Can you please offer some suggestions of ways to support this kid in my homeroom?”
Collaboration and teamwork… by the teachers (and stuff we should be modeling for students anyway)… is what makes for a successful program when multiple people are in charge of a single student.
Hope this helps,
~Dave
It does help.
My team is made entirely of first year teachers. I appreciate you sharing what has worked from your experience.
Things have changed drastically since I originally posted this. Our team collaboration is much better. We’ve seen a lot of student academic success based on changes that we’ve implemented.