Collaboration Rubric Part One: School-Level Factors

“School-level factors” refers to the school-wide structures that must be in place in order for collaboration to be successful.  Decisions about school-level factors are made by the principal with the school leadership team or other involved staff members, and they greatly affect teachers’ ability to collaborate.  

 The five school-level elements of collaboration are:

• Time
• Space
• Resources
• Classroom Placement
• Professional Development

Supporting Information: Classroom Placement

The fourth section in part one of the rubric is “Classroom Placement.”  It describes the procedures that should be in place in schools to ensure that class lists are constructed in a manner that maximizes the available teaching staff and therefore strengthens instructional services.  In most cases, ELL students should be clustered in one or two classrooms or should be placed according to their instructional or language proficiency levels or other specific needs.

Specific guidelines for placing ELL students:

ELL percentage of school	Clustering guideline
Less than 30% of students ELL	Cluster ELLs in one or two classrooms
30% - 50% of students ELL	Cluster, but be sure ELLs do not exceed 50% of any class roster
50% or more of students ELL	Distribute ELL among all classrooms, but group by need or language level

Note:  Students can also be clustered according to native language

Additional factors to consider when clustering ELL students:

• Academic needs of students (not equality of class size!);
• Rationale for clustering, in terms of service to students;
• Role and understanding of all school staff in clustering model; and
• Combination of ELL cluster with other, appropriate clusters:  G/T, special education, etc.