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

Grade Level Leadership at YES Prep

December 23, 2009 by Jeremy Jones

Since our founding, we have known that great people make the difference in the achievement of low-income students. As we select great teachers, we look for their propensity to take responsibility of groups of people and enjoy leading other to success. Having built a leadership pipeline in our organization is not only an acknowledgement that we are concerned with ensuring that people at YES Prep have a compelling future in the organization, but it has been a matter of necessity. 

YES Prep is increasing our growth trajectory in order to serve more of Houston’s students. In the coming years, we will grow out to 13 neighborhood campuses, serving 10,000 students and tripling the number of low-income Houston students that complete a four-year college. In order to reach such an ambitious goal, we are relying on the dedication and passion of our teachers and leaders. Simply put, we are dependent on our teachers growing quickly and taking more responsibility and leadership as they become more experienced.

YES Prep North Central School Director Mark DiBella put it succinctly, “We flatten the pyramid.” Instead of controlling school operations with a top-down approach, YES Prep teachers enjoy a lot of freedom in deciding how the school executes its mission. One of the ways that we “flatten the pyramid” is by allowing teachers to take on leadership at the grade level. Grade Level Chairs (GLCs) are a key component to the success of our schools. 

In serving as the 6^th grade level chair at YES Prep North Central for two years, I had a lot of influence over how the 6^th grade functioned. I was responsible for the academic and cultural success of 130 students and synthesized the efforts of 12 teachers. As the grade level chair, I built a student culture that propelled academic achievement and developed student leadership and investment. A major component of my role as the grade level chair was enforcing high academic and behavioral expectations of the students. 

In this organizational structure, Grade Level Chairs also signify another key element of our philosophy: developing an internal leadership pipeline. Among our current school leaders, many of them have previously served as GLCs and found the experience informative and important in their path toward school leadership. Being a Grade Level Chair builds many leadership skills. You learn how to better manage and communicate with adults, you take greater responsibility for a larger group of students, you build culture, rally a large group of people around big goals, and network with school leadership to ensure that grade level goals and actions align with the school and organizational mission and goals. 

To learn more about leadership at YES Prep, please email Head of Schools and Director of Leading Excellence Bill Durbin at bill.durbin@yesprep.org.

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