Academic teaming organizes groups of teachers across departments, so that teachers share the same students rather than the same subject. This strategy has much the same effect as a house structure. Teaming links teachers, who teach different subjects, in a team that shares responsibility for the curriculum, instruction, evaluation, and sometimes scheduling and discipline of a group of 100-150 students. Teams share the same planning time, and sometimes share a specific area of the school building. Though more commonly used in middle schools, academic teaming is showing up in restructuring high schools as a way to personalize the learning environment by providing an integrated view of students' progress and creating a group of teachers who can focus together on the whole student. Teams can build a sense of community into the school, enabling students to learn more so they can meet higher standards.

Although academic teaming is not described in detail in any of the school stories, most of the featured schools use some form of this strategy. References to academic teaming are found intermittently throughout the Schools Making Progress Series.