Abstract: In order to improve the cooperative deformation capability of the concrete and the steel plate, the high ductile concrete (HDC) was proposed to replace the concrete. Two steel plate–HDC composite coupling beams and two steel plate-concrete composite coupling beams were tested under reversed cyclic lateral loading. The specimens’ failure process, failure modes, hysteretic behavior, energy dissipation and stiffness degradation were studied. The results shows that the failure mode of specimens with span-to-depth ratio of 1.5 is the shear failure while the shear-bond failure occurs on the specimens with span-to-depth ratio of 2.5. Compared with steel plate-concrete composite coupling beams, the proposed steel plate–HDC composite coupling beams exhibit high ductility and damage resistant capability under reversed cyclic lateral loading. Ultimate rotational capacity and energy dissipation of steel plate–HDC composite coupling beams are 44.4% and 83.5% higher, respectively than those of steel plate–concrete composite coupling beams when the specimens failed in shear. Steel plate–HDC composite coupling beam with span-to-depth ratio of 2.5 exhibits significantly improved energy-dissipation capacity. According to the test results, the specimens’ design value of shear-compression ratio is 0.48~0.57, which is significantly higher than the limited shear-compression ratio of the coupling beams with small span-to-depth ratio. Based on the test results and analysis, a formula for the shear capacity of the coupling beam with small span-to-depth ratio is presented, and the calculation values are in good agreement with experimental results.