Why Middle (and High) School Students Should Have Class Jobs

When Meredith Howard asks her incoming middle schoolers whether they had classroom jobs in elementary school—tasks like line leader or plant waterer—very few raise their hands. 

“Mostly, for the few who did have jobs, it was things like teacher’s helper, which is more like: the teacher needs someone to take something somewhere,” says Howard, a history and social studies teacher at Albert Hill Middle School in Virginia. Given the academic and administrative workload teachers juggle at all grade levels, Howard speculates that class jobs may feel like just another mountain of work to organize. 

And yet, as tweens and teens experience rapid cognitive growth alongside a profound need for social connection, autonomy, and purpose, the secondary grades can be an ideal time for class jobs. “There’s a big community aspect” to classroom jobs, Howard says. It’s about "holding people accountable, developing trust, and owning your experience in the classroom. I have a stronger classroom community of students who really feel like they belong.”

The most effective class jobs offer substantive benefits for both students and teachers. “I added the literal best job to my list of classroom jobs,” says middle school ELA teacher Krista Barbour on Instagram. “You know those moments where you give directions and a kid is like: What are we doing again? That’s where Hey, Siri comes in.” Now when someone inevitably misses instructions, Barbour calls out Hey Siri, and that week’s designated Siri heads over to help out the confused student.

Meanwhile, there’s a leadership dimension to class jobs, writes 8th-grade English teacher Ariel Sacks for Education Week.  She argues that teens need “authentic, immediate” leadership opportunities that “reinforce the values of responsibility and community service.” One of the jobs in Sacks’ classroom is Director of Maintenance, for example, which involves “oversight of the physical space,” including dismissing students once they’ve cleaned up their desk areas. “There’s a lot of power in this job, and I love putting it in the hands of students,” Sacks says. 

Setting Up Your “Workforce”

An effective classroom jobs program doesn’t “spring up out of nowhere,” says middle school STEM teacher Thom Gibson in Cult of Pedagogy, noting that to work well, class jobs require preparation and organization. Thankfully, the bulk of the effort is at the front end, says Howard, and following an initial time investment during the first weeks of school showing students how to do their assigned jobs, her program takes off and “runs itself for the rest of the year.”

In both Gibson and Howard’s classrooms, the process begins with students browsing through a list of job descriptions before applying to their top two or three choices. In Gibson’s class, students write a few sentences or bullet points about why they’d be a good fit, an additional step that “improves buy-in.” Howard conducts a kind of informal, written interview, asking students to write about skills they’d bring to the job as well as their “talents, interests, past experiences, and participation in the class so far this year.”

To get the best outcomes, the hired student(s) should have a “job-specific checklist of responsibilities, including when their job is performed, how often, and how to do it,” Gibson says, adding that having a teacher’s assistant to keep track of the program and remind students to do their jobs is helpful but not essential. “Students will need practice and feedback to do the jobs right,” Gibson says. When a student isn’t fulfilling their job responsibilities, it’s important to ask them to do it again, “not as a punishment,” Gibson says, but as a reminder to persevere.

A Radical Solution: Hiring Students to Teach

At Brooklyn Preparatory High School in New York, the most sought after job is that of curriculum leader—known to students and staff as CL. The job comes with real instructional responsibility and hourly pay allocated from the school’s annual budget, says Noah Lansner, principal at Brooklyn Prep. 

“The CL role is a lot more involved than a teacher's assistant job,” says Esteban Gaspar Silva, a special education English and journalism teacher at the school. “I often try to give them as much responsibility as possible: creating slides, coming up with a format for the lesson.” Once students are trained and in the flow of the classroom work, Silva takes “a back seat” allowing CLs at times to “fully teach the lesson and I’ll be circulating, checking in with students and making sure things stay on track.”

Brooklyn Prep’s curriculum leaders job program is about 8 years old, says Lansner, and now includes 150 students in 35 classrooms, though it started small with just a few classrooms. “It grew organically as we noticed that students liked helping out,” he says, noting that he and several colleagues worked as TAs in college, providing a good starting model for the program. 

Importantly, the goal isn’t to have kids performing administrative duties; instead, they are actually assisting with instruction. “We’ve always felt there’s a twofold benefit: the CLs are strengthening their own understanding of the content, and building soft leadership skills by speaking in front of groups, being organized, and coming up with new instructional ideas,” Lansner says, specifying that the school isn’t a teacher prep program. “For the students in the class, they’re hearing the lesson in different ways, they identify with the CL and see them up there as a leader—something they might do one day too. Plus, there’s lots of research showing that kids learn best from each other, and from teaching something to a peer.”

CLs apply for the roles and receive 10 hours of virtual (paid) training during the summer break and must commit to attending two weekly planning sessions with the teacher of the class they work in to plan and prep for the lesson.  

There’s a lot of pride at Brooklyn Prep around CL jobs, especially for students. “They view it as an honor: Wow, I did really well and now I’m being asked to help run this class,” says Silva. 

Sample Jobs for Middle and High School

For schools and classrooms where jobs aren’t commonplace, teachers we interviewed recommend easing into it, limiting the number of classroom jobs, for example, so the program doesn’t become onerous. Aim for a meaningful mix of jobs focused on logistics, housekeeping, academics, and culture-building so students feel invested and your classroom operates smoothly and feels welcoming. 

It pays off to wait a few weeks before getting started. Howard doesn’t assign jobs until she’s seen students for at least five classes, giving her enough “observational data” to assess whether, say, an attendance monitor has the requisite reliable attendance to fulfill the job requirements. 

With that idea in mind, we pulled together a list of low-lift yet still impactful classroom jobs:

Absence Helper: The Absence Helper (who should have good attendance) gathers handouts, labels them for absent students, and files them appropriately. They’ll update absent students about what they missed when they return. (Sourced from Meredith Howard)

Classroom Manager: Passes out and collects papers, helps with class transitions and directions when the teacher needs an extra set of hands. (Sourced from Looslilearning)

Athletic Trainer: Sets a timer and leads the class in a brief movement activity as a mid-lesson brain break. (Sourced from Thom Gibson)

Director of Maintenance: Oversees the physical space and cares for everyday tasks like watering plants, wiping down desks, and ensuring the room is generally orderly, with chairs pushed in after class. This job might be assigned to several students. (Sourced from Ariel Sacks)

Birthday Celebrator: Knows each student’s birthday and prepares a small celebration which could include leading the class in singing happy birthday, preparing a class-wide card, or hanging a birthday banner, for example. (Sourced from Looslilearning)

Attendance Monitor: Ideal for students who are rarely absent, they’ll ask the daily attendance question, and help keep track of attendance issues including absences, tardies, and early dismissals. (Sourced from Meredith Howard)

Tech Guru: Sets up and maintains classroom tech such as projectors, speakers, headphones, and troubleshoots student iPad or Chromebook issues. Depending on classroom policies, this student (or more than one student, ideally) collects and returns cell phones before and after class. (Sourced from Meredith Howard and Thom Gibson)

Supply Manager: This student keeps track of classroom supplies, distributes and collects them, and makes sure they’re stored and well maintained. They’ll also identify missing materials or dwindling supplies as needed. (Sourced from Ariel Sacks)

Classroom DJ: Creates school-appropriate song lists for “work time + good vibes.” (Sourced from Looslilearning)

Librarian: The librarian keeps the classroom library organized and keeps track of whole-class novel studies when books are numbered and students check them out. (Sourced from Ariel Sacks)

Whiteboard Manager: Good for students with excellent handwriting, they’ll update the whiteboard with the date, daily agenda, learning targets, and homework, which they’ll copy from the LMS. (Sourced from Meredith Howard)