Making the Grade: Propel Schools

We are in Propel McKeesport, a clean, well lighted K-8 school. Steered into Jamie Chlystek's 6th-grade language arts class, we find the students all hunkered down and hugger-mugger, working four or five at a table on vocabulary and reading comprehension -- Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl here, Natalie Babbitt's Tuck Everlasting there. Self-directed, seemingly self-taught, the students barely look up as a bevy of visitors bustle into the room. Why, the children seem to ask, should strangers distract us from the glorious task at hand -- reading?

This is as it should be. After all, the student chose these books -- after a proper preview, they voted them up or down. Now they have the task of following the curriculum, using time management skills, creating a Power Point on the difference between fantasy and realistic fiction. Clearly, they are teaching each other; clearly, they are on task.

"This is something we utilize," offers Chlystek  "We expect everybody to work together. Students can get these concepts across in a highly effective way. Sometimes, it's better than what a teacher can do."

Such is Propel -- 97 percent publicly funded public schools, where students apply for admission and are chosen by lottery, and which takes a pointedly different tack on education than traditional schools. Created by Executive Director Jeremy Resnick, Propel emphasizes intense individualized instruction, a culture of self-reliance and self-respect, close relationships with both students and parents, and bottom-up, hands-on, flexible management.

Resnick himself learned these lessons the hard way, teaching at Schenley High in the late '80s, then joining the nascent charter school movement. Liking the feel of charter schools -- they're generally smaller, closer to the bone, employing highly motivated, highly empowered teachers -- Resnick was involved with the pioneering efforts of North Side Urban Pathways  After three years, he left, looking for another model. Using formula created in the Bay Area, he shaped Propel by putting together a business plan in 2002 and securing funding from  R.K. Mellon Foundation, Grable Foundation, Heinz Endowments, DSF, Bridgeway Capital, and Benter Foundation.

Beginning outside Pittsburgh city limits, Resnick set his sights on Homestead. Parents got signatures, the state approved his plan, and in September, 2003, Propel opened with 176 students in the basement of the old Homestead Hospital. Moving the operation to St. Mary's on 10th Avenue, adding McKeesport, Turtle Creek, Munhall, and Kennedy, Propel now hosts 1,700 students with another 1,500 on the waiting list. This year, a Braddock Hills K-12 is set to open, and by 2014 Propel hopes to open three more schools and double the number of children served.

"We've become a Western Pennsylvania success story," Resnick says.

And in more ways than attendance. With two-thirds of Propel students African-American, three-quarters living below the poverty line, and a fifth special needs -- "the same mix as kid in the community," Resnick says -- they consistently score well on standardized tests. For example, in 2007, 24 percent of students in Southwestern Pennsylvania were not proficient in math, while 36 percent were not proficient in reading. For African-Americans, those numbers skyrocketed to 57 percent not proficient in math and 68 percent not proficient in reading. By contrast, 59 percent of Propel students were proficient or advanced in reading, while 69 percent were at those levels in math. Overall, Propel's African-American students are doing especially well in comparison with those attending other districts -- 55 percent scored proficient or advanced on state tests compared to a state-wide average of 47 percent.

"How do we do this?" Resnick asks. "We begin by not accepting the premise that poverty or family structure determines educational performance -- that zip code should not affect achievement. To the contrary, Propel believes that every child can achieve, regardless of his or her background. That these children have the power, resilience, and ability to overcome.

"Our results," he adds, "have gotten better and better. We'd like to have a school where you can't distinguish between poverty and non-poverty. As it is, we've put a big dent in the racial achievement gap. At Propel, the economically disadvantaged students are closing the gap with the state average. Currently, our students are 71 percent proficient -- compared to the state-wide average of 74 percent. But our students are 75 percent poverty, compared to 38 percent statewide. So we're excited about those results."

Why is Propel doing so much better? "We have a high level of personalization in the classroom," Resnick says. "We build strong relationships between adults and kids. You can't push children until they know that you love them. So we spend a lot of time on relationship building. And we also have a real sense of urgency about the use of time."

Back in McKeesport, the fifth graders are working on a Native American Dwelling Project, seeing how they lived in long houses, teepees, and so on. Using bar graphs, the students are charting the mean, median, and mode for living models. Others are working on a marketing problem by making a budget, going food shopping and calculating change. "These," gestures Markeya Stewart, a preternaturally self-assured 10-year-old, "help us learn about the real world."

Adds principal Tina Chekan, "we have students explain their thinking and work all the time."

Insistent on a good work ethic, Propel hangs simple, workable slogans all about the premises. Get Here. Work Hard. Manage Your Time. Set Goals. Be Positive. Be Persistent.  No Excuses. Be Accountable. "Children will rise and fall according to expectations," she says. "So we take a lot of time to create a culture of learning" -- a culture that includes a dress code, three-button blue shirts, khaki trousers, and the like. "That culture comes before instruction."

"We spend a lot of time teaching appropriate behavior," superintendent Carol Wooten adds. "We reward good behavior."

"Our absentee rate is very low," Chekan says. "Students get here early -- before the doors open. They feel good about coming to school."

Abby Mendelson's latest book, End of the Road, a collection of short stories, is available at amazon and bn.com.

Captions: Assistant Principal Hampton Conway with student Douglas Filotei of 6th grade; 5th graders Sullimon Thomas (left) and Cody Schreiner; 2nd grade teacher Denise LaRosa with students Eric Oliver (left) and Jade Edwards; Principal Tina Chekan with 6th graders Emily Moeller and Nautica Newby.

Photographs copyright Brian Cohen