WMS 6th graders try new ‘cohort’ schedules

WASHINGTON — Sixth-graders entering Washington Middle School this year had a slightly different experience from their predecessors. Rather than being thrust from the structured days of elementary classroom routines directly into the high school-like world of student-specific schedules scattered around the building, the grade started the year using “cohorts.”

Students went to their first period with one group of kids, and then proceeded to the following classes with the same peers for the rest of the day.

School officials said the setup made for an easier transition from one building to the next.

“When kids get here, it is totally different because they’re in one classroom all day long, they never use lockers, they don’t rotate teachers or anything like that,” WMS Principal Jesika McLaughlin said. “The last couple years, we’ve been really working with Lincoln on (the) smoothest transition plan … just figuring out where their classes are is a big issue at the beginning of the year, usually.”

The change means students can more easily navigate the larger building, since their classmates are all going to the same place at the same time. For the first few weeks of school, teachers even led pupils to their next classroom in groups, helping them get their bearings in the new space.

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McLaughlin said the plan had worked out wonderfully. After a review meeting last month, teachers agreed to extend the cohort model into the next semester. The principal said staff had noticed myriad social benefits for kids beyond the expected logistical help, and attributed the improvements to the cohort model combined with daily visits to their homerooms, another change made this school year.

“They’re more like a family,” McLaughlin said. “There’s more conversation that is school-related, there’s not that, ‘I don’t want to be in class because so-and-so’s in here,’ they don’t have that because we’ve set those expectations and made it a positive environment.”

As a result, students have learned to work better with others, resolve conflicts, and better follow expectations in the classroom. McLaughlin said the sixth grade had the building’s lowest number of behavioral referrals this year, a trend that wasn’t true in previous years, especially in the first months of school when younger students are still adjusting to new expectations.

Anecdotally, the change has also pushed students to socialize with different people, an important skill in itself.

“I’ve heard parents say, ‘My kid has made new friends this year,’ … they had to, because their friends weren’t in their class,” McLaughlin said. “They do all get to eat lunch together, which is 30 minutes (without) assigned seats or anything.”

Washington Middle School has also seen attendance improve so far in the 2024-25 academic year, although McLaughlin cautioned that other changes to district policy could be at play in that trend.

The cohort model likely won’t last the whole school year. McLaughlin said administrators were tentatively considering a switch to more independent schedules starting with this year’s fourth term in an effort to prepare students for seventh grade and beyond, and to give them a chance to socialize with new peers.

It also won’t be expanded to later grades, McLaughlin said, since older kids already know the building fairly well, and attend different levels of certain courses and electives from any given classmate.

As for sixth graders, however, she said the model seems likely to return in 2025.

“The cohorts have more of a community,” she said. “They respect each other a lot better, and when they do group work, there’s more of a community. Just seeing that has made a huge difference.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com