Chronicle Editorial: Winfrey supports great schools. And so should we

September 23, 2010 by Jeremy Jones

Oprah says YES.
Winfrey supports great schools. And so should we.

Earlier this week, as part of her year-long goodbye, Oprah Winfrey closed the books on one more piece of her long-running talk show. She retired its charitable arm, the Angel Network, which aimed "to give people the chance to live their best lives." She sent it out with a bang, surprising six of the United States' best charter schools with oversized checks, each for a million dollars. Our favorite came last: YES Prep Public Schools, based here in Houston.

The chain's first school, YES College Preparatory School, started in 1998 as a bunch of temporary buildings plopped onto an East End parking lot. The school had no entrance requirements, and it was free. But its goals were sky-high: It aimed to make itself a national model — to show just how much difference a great school can make in low-income kids' lives.

Two years later, it ranked as the top-performing high school in Texas.

What came next, though, is even more significant. YES expanded, showing that it's possible to reproduce those astounding results. The chain now serves 4,300 students a year in eight middle and high schools around Houston. Ninety-five percent of its students are Hispanic or African-American; 80 percent are economically disadvantaged. Most enter at least one grade level behind in math and English; but for the past 10 years, every YES senior — 100 percent of the class — has been accepted by a four-year college. Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report consistently rank YES Prep among the country's top 100 public high schools.

YES' secrets? READ MORE OF THE EDITORIAL

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