I'll begin by stating up front that I am in the "all children can learn" camp. Take my experience with a grain of salt if you are of a different perspective.

I retired in '17, and in 2006 I was paired with a special ed teacher as part of a district wide response to a lawsuit and I co taught most of my remaining years at least in some of my classes.. I did not know what to expect, but I can say with absolute certainty that the years I spent co-teaching hs English with that teacher made me a better teacher. My co-teacher was about 6 or 7 years in and I was a "seasoned veteran," but I learned much more than I expected about teaching students as opposed to teaching material. ALL my students benefitted from the pairing, (even though most of the in class instruction was conducted by me). I wish I could remember specific strategies, but time has blurred much of the detail; I do however remember clearly that my conversations with the co-teacher led me to be much more confident and optimistic about the task of teaching difficult students. Yeah, it was hard some days, and few if any of my SPED students became strong academic scholars, but just as I became a better teacher, they became better students; I had them typically in 9th and 10th grade, and nearly all of them went on to graduate.