Morongo Unified School District moves 6th graders from elementary to middle schools
Earlier this month, MUSD Assistant Superintendents for Secondary and Elementary Education Amy Woods and Dr. Graciela Guiterrez were the guests on the Z107.7 Up Close Show. Host Gary Daigneault asked about the district’s reclassification of 6th graders, moving them from elementary school to junior high school in Twentynine Palms.
Woods said, “On the east end of the district, which Twentynine Palms, we are taking the sixth grade students or the rising sixth grade students, the ones who would be sixth grade this year from Oasis Elementary, Twentynine Palms Elementary, Condor Elementary, and Palm Vista Elementary. Now they will be inside the California middle school model, which is a sixth, seventh, and eighth grade model. So the Twentynine Palms Junior High School staff will have those students now for three years instead of two years.
“The sixth graders will have two teachers. One will teach them English and Social Studies, and one will teach them Math and Science.
“And then they have an opportunity to pick an elective. So they could pick music or cadets or the rotating elective that we have where they’ll do a quarter of creative writing, a quarter of college and career exploration, a quarter of computer exploration and a quarter of art.
“And then they are integrated together with the 7th graders during lunch and during physical education, which now they have every day. It is trying to transition them more efficiently and effectively into a secondary model. So they go from one teacher to two or three teachers.”
Daigneault asked if this approach would be used at other schools in the Morongo Unified School District, specifically at La Contenta Middle School. Woods replied, “I am not prepared to answer that question at this time. We have to see how it works. There’s a lot of moving pieces. La Contenta is far larger than Twentynine Palms Junior High School, which is why we piloted it there.”
You can hear their full conversation below:
