WATERLOO - Most of them have been classmates and had the same teacher since first grade.

Now the 16 boys in Jeff Ferguson's fifth-grade class are preparing to leave Dr. Walter Cunningham School for Excellence and begin middle school next fall.

"As I think about their last day of school, it's going to be difficult," said Ferguson. "I've bonded with them so much, it'll be hard to see them go."

The class has been together since Cunningham first piloted single-gender education for Waterloo Community Schools in 2005. All but four of the original students remain in the class and three others have joined it over the years. Although the school has four other single-gender classrooms, those students spend no more than two years with the same teacher.

The single-gender classrooms were inspired by research suggesting the sex of a child makes a difference in how he or she learns. Educators hope single-gender classrooms will increase achievement as teachers emphasize approaches that are more effective for boys or girls. Having Ferguson follow his class through elementary school is a further attempt to affect achievement levels.

As far as Ferguson is concerned, it worked.

"There have been benefits; some of them are measurable, some are not," he said. And not all directly relate to scores on a test. Ferguson said those benefits show up in the boys' self-esteem, their ability to be "gentlemen" and the way they act at home.

His years of emphasizing that the boys act like "gentlemen" by being polite and considerate of others has had an effect. He hears positive comments about how they act from parents and colleagues.

Student Samonti Tooson also notices a difference among his peers in Ferguson's class compared to other fifth-graders. "They don't behave as well as we do," he said.

Educators point to an academic effect, as well, based on Iowa Tests of Basic Skills results.

"Their scores have gone steadily up," said Jane Lindaman, the district's director of results and learning, on the math and reading portions of the test. Last school year, the students' proficiency stood at 64.71 percent in reading and 47.06 percent in math. Test scores are not yet available for the current year.

That was a higher rate of proficiency than other Cunningham fourth-graders, by 26 percent in reading and 18 percent in math. It was also higher than the school as a whole, by 16.8 percent in reading and 11.6 percent in math.

In addition, reading proficiency rates were higher than fourth-graders at four Waterloo schools with similar student populations - between 8.5 and 17.5 percent. Math proficiency rates were higher at two of the comparison schools and lower at the other two. They ranged from 11.4 percent higher to 4.5 percent lower at those schools.

Inspired by students

Ferguson and some of the students said another benefit of staying together for five years has been the relationships that have developed. As a result, Ferguson can focus more on each student's individual learning needs.

"I thought it would be a great experience," said Ferguson. "But it has surpassed anything that I could imagine, the relationship that has developed. They inspire me to be a better teacher, they really do."

"He had kept us together and we have attached to each other," said Davion Givens, noting all the classmates have become good friends. "We each know something about each other and where we came from."

And there are things Givens will miss about Ferguson: "Like, the way he teaches it, different from other teachers," he said. "Because, he lets us blurt out and stand up in the classroom."

Ferguson's classroom is more noisy and chaotic than many. He said that works because the boys quiet down when he asks them to. But he has warned them that the expectations are likely to be different in middle school.

"He's trying to teach us to start raising our hands," said Givens.

The boys will have the same homeroom next fall at the new George Washington Carver Academy, but otherwise take classes with a wider group of students and multiple teachers like everyone else. Deqann Washington, for one, is ready to make the move to middle school.

"Yeah, I'm prepared for it," he said. "I'm excited; I can't wait."

Myles Anderson said it won't be hard to say goodbye to the boys he has shared a classroom with for years.

"Because many of my friends, they live in my neighborhood, they live down the street," he said. And while he won't see Ferguson "on a daily basis," he expects to "see him in stores and stuff."

While Ferguson knows he'll miss the students, their readiness to move on was always the goal and is welcome.

"I'm looking forward to great things from all of them," he said. "That's the biggest thing I'm looking forward to."

Contact Andrew Wind at (319) 291-1507 or andrew.wind@wcfcourier.com.