The Answer - A blog about Education, Preparation, and Commitment.

Campus Insider Event at YES Prep North Central

January 18, 2010 by Jeremy Jones

YES Prep is the best school in Houston. For the past nine years, 100% of YES Prep’s graduating seniors have been accepted to top colleges and universities across the country. On Friday, January 15^th, 2010 a few visitors were able to see what it takes to accomplish such an ambitious goal up close and personal.

YES Prep is committed to sharing our success with other people inside and outside of education. Throughout the spring, YES Prep campuses will be hosting Campus Insider Events that seek to deepen the perspective about what is possible in public education. With these Campus Insider Events, we not only hope share our success, but we hope to begin a conversation about great teachers, hardworking students, committed families, college acceptance rates and all of the many other aspects plaguing traditional urban public school systems. 

We had 15 visitors during our first Campus Insider Event of 2010 and the YES Prep North Central students, teachers and school leaders were gracious enough to invite us in for a day. Visitors started the morning with introductions by three YES Prep North Central seniors who were happy to answer any questions about their time at YES Prep and where they have already been accepted to college. Between the three of them, they have been accepted to 20 colleges! Visitors were then introduced to school leaders Mark DiBella (School Director), Bryan Reed (High School Principal), and Chad Spurgeon (Director of College Counseling). After the greetings and a little history about YES Prep North Central, the visitors were divided into some smaller groups and toured the campus from three more YES Prep North Central Seniors. Once the tours were over, our visitors were welcome to observe classrooms. Visitors were in and out of classes checking out outstanding college preparatory instruction. An hour of classroom observations flew by after which, our visitors enjoyed some catered lunches and an insightful Q&A session from teachers.

YES Prep is constantly looking for ways to improve, so we asked our visitors to provide us with some feedback. 100% of our visitors said that they were welcomed by a teacher and a student and 98% of our visitors said that their visit deepened their understanding of the academic achievement gap and the hard work and dedication it takes to ensure that students are receiving an excellent education.

One visitor remarked, “I was so impressed not only by the level of engagement I saw in the class I visited, but also the level of questioning both from teachers and students; the level of overall respect and community was also amazing; to see 6th graders and 12th graders sharing a hallway calmly and respectfully is a signal that you are doing something right.” Another visitor mentioned, “One thing that I really appreciate is the lack of jargon and the sincere desire to escape all forms of education pretense; it seems to have created really thoughtful kids and thoughtful teachers.”

We hope that our visitors did walk away with some key ideas, most importantly, that delivering excellent education to students regardless of their zip codes is possible!

If you would like to be a Campus Insider, check out our next event on February 12^th from 9am-1230pm at YES Prep East End. REGISTER HERE. If you want more information about YES Prep, please visit us at www.yesprep.org/work or join our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/yesprep. For questions, shoot us an email at teach@yesprep.org. 

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