Pa. school teaches through ‘looping’

PITTSBURGH (AP) — One of the first things Melissa Jellison learned as a freshman at City Charter High School was not to date any of her classmates — by the time she graduated, her teachers advised, they’d all feel like family.

After spending eight hours a day with the same teachers and classmates nine months of the year for the past two years, Jellison thinks her teachers were right.

“At first, I hated being with the same people all the time. Now, I see it as a good thing where I can get close to teachers,” said Jellison, 16, a junior at the school in downtown Pittsburgh. “Sure enough, I feel like my class and my teachers are my family.”

That was the intention when City High opened eight years ago. In the school’s “looping” approach, a group of teachers follows the same students through all four years until graduation.

Similar to the “team” concept used in middle schools, the method allows teachers to get the most from every student, said Wes Yeater, a history teacher on his second “loop” of students. The school is among a handful of high schools nationwide to use the technique for more than guidance counseling, educators say.

“When we got our first class six years ago, Wes and I looked at each other and thought there was no way some of these kids were going to make it,” said Donna Schwartz, a learning-support teacher in the school. “But they did. And I really believe that if we didn’t have that relationship with the student, they wouldn’t have.”

City High, whose charter has been extended to 2012, has about 560 students in grades nine to 12. About 80 percent are from the city, with the rest coming from 23 suburban districts. Tuition is paid by a student’s home district.

The school admits up to 156 students to the freshman class each year. No new students can be added to that class after the first trimester of the sophomore year.

School officials cite looping as one reason the school has a 95 percent graduation rate. Pittsburgh public schools, in comparison, had an 85 percent graduation rate in 2008, according to the state Department of Education.

Few high schools employ looping as fully as City High, said Bob Furman, director of the Educational Administration and Supervision program at Duquesne University’s School of Education.

A 2004 report by the Principal Project, sponsored by the philanthropic arm of the Union Pacific Railroad, said no public non-charter high school used looping at the time. Elementary and middle schools do so most often, said Jo Franklin, associate director of leadership programs and services at the National Association of Secondary Schools.

Furman said the close relationships forged between students and teachers in the looping program likely will translate into success at the college level.

“It’s a real advantage because they have a lot of stuff going on in their lives as adolescents,” Furman said. “I think they’ll be ready and won’t be having a traumatic transition into university.”

Courtney Charles, a senior at City High, plans to apply to the University of Pittsburgh’s satellite campus in Greensburg because she wants a small-school environment. She said she’s worried she would get lost in a class of 300 students at a larger campus.

“I’m afraid it’s going to take longer to become comfortable with my professors,” said Charles, 17, of Wilkinsburg. “Some professors are just there to do a job.”

At City High, students and teachers said they feel like they can talk to each other about anything. Despite being a teenager, Jellison said she doesn’t worry about what others think of her, a common trap for high school students.

“You may not like it at first here, but over time, you realize it’s a really good thing and you learn more this way,” Jellison said. “You can be yourself in high school here.”