Together is Better (TIB) is a School District of Philadelphia-designed pilot program that introduced a co-teaching English Learner (EL) model into three District schools.
In the TIB model, a General Education (Gen Ed) teacher and an English as a Second or Other Language (ESOL) teacher are paired to collaboratively teach (referred to as “co-teaching”) in a classroom that includes English Learners (ELs). This practice of co-teaching provides embedded support to ELs, and ESOL-informed instruction to all students. The pilot implementation of TIB in the School District of Philadelphia was a three-year project. The first year (2017-18) was a planning year. Two years of TIB program implementation in three schools began in 2018-19. At the end of the first year of implementation, one of the three schools withdrew from the program. This report focuses primarily on the implementation and outcomes of the TIB program at the two schools who participated in the program for both implementation years.