From Education Week, by Sarah D. Sparks, April 03, 2026
Decades of research suggest engaging, effective teachers are the most important factor in student learning.
But linking ongoing teacher learning to student achievement has proven more difficult.
Now the U.S. Department of Education is doubling down on teacher collaboration—one of the few approaches to teacher professional development backed by both emerging research and the teachers themselves, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office, which studies topics of interest to Congress.
In a guidance letter released in February, the Education Department encouraged districts to use their share of the $2.2 billion in federal Title II grants—the largest source of federal funding for teacher professional development—for team-teaching and other staffing models that generally give the most effective teachers more opportunities to share their expertise with colleagues or impact more students .
(At odds with the guidance letter, the Trump administration on Friday released a budget proposal that would eliminate Title II grants for states and collapse them into a smaller block-grant program for states, the second year the administration has proposed such a move.)
Federal support for collaborative teaching could encourage more states and districts to improve the scheduling, mentoring, and evaluation structures needed to support formal teacher collaboration—and bolster the already rapid spread of team-teaching models, such as Arizona State University’s Next Education Workforce Initiative and the nonprofit Public Impact’s Opportunity Culture.