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

YES Prep Ranks in the Top Ten of Houston Chronicle’s Annual School Report Card

April 18, 2011 by Chris Barbic

Yesterday, the Houston Chronicle and Children at Risk released their annual School Report Card. We were thrilled to see that YES Prep Southeast was once again ranked a top ten high school in Houston, placing sixth on the list. YES Prep has been ranked on this list ever since Children At Risk and the Houston Chronicle first teamed up to create it. Starting last year, the rankings also began including the top middle schools in Houston. ALL of our eligible campuses ranked in the top 25—on a list that includes over 265 area schools. We were particularly excited to see our YES Prep Southwest campus ranked 5th on this list. As the national debate about public education and charter schools continues, we were also pleased to see that four of the top ten schools on the list were state and district charter schools, including our good friends at KIPP Houston and Harmony Science Academy.

How Do They Come Up with the Rankings?
It is important to first put the data in the proper context.  The high school rankings were based on 2009 and 2010 data that includes TAKS scores, student retention data, SAT and AP exam performance, and student graduation rates. The middle school rankings were based on the same timeframe and included 8^thgrade TAKS commended scores, student attendance, and retention rates. Both rankings also provide "weighted points" for schools who are serving a majority low-income population. At YES Prep, over 80% of our students are from low-income neighborhoods and ALL of our students are selected through a random lottery process that has no admission criteria.

So What Do We Do With This Information?
The first thing we need to do is celebrate! The fact that our schools are all clustered towards the top of the rankings highlights not only our quality but also our consistency. When we first began expanding, our goal was not to create "pockets" of excellence, but rather a coordinated, comprehensive model that could replicate results in neighborhoods across Houston. This list confirms that we are finding the right balance between providing campus autonomy while also creating systems that encourage collaboration, efficiency, and best practice sharing. But even the best model is only as good as the people in the organization. One of our core values recognizes that high caliber people are THE source of our strength. We have sustained high achievement because of the terrific work happening across our schools and our home office. Our students work hard because they are challenged, motivated, and supported by every staff member at YES Prep. Working together, we have created a very special place. 

It is also important to note that the rankings criteria include measures that we are already tracking at every level of the organization. Even still, we never want YES Prep to be a place that gets too hung up on rankings because it is ultimately not the ranking itself that matters.  It is both the student achievement “inputs” that make the rankings, along with the sort of things a ranking will never measure—staying after school on Saturday for tutorials, answering a student’s phone call late into the evening, having the conversation with a kid during lunch when they are having a bad day, or working with a colleague to plan a lesson or cover a class—that make us who we are and makes our kids successful.

We want to use these rankings as both a reminder of the great work we are doing and a means to focus on areas for improvement.

The Real Measure
At the end of the day, the real measure of success will always be in the number of our students who graduate from YES Prep, finish college, and work to improve the quality of life in disadvantaged communities. Nearly 80% of our high school graduates have either finished college or are still enrolled (compared to a national college completion rate of less than 25% for the students we serve). We want to build on this success and we know that we still have work to do with the students we are serving today. What's more, the 9,000 students on our waiting list make it clear that the demand for quality public education only continues to grow. We congratulate all of the schools on this list and we look forward to continuing the dialogue about how best to educate and serve the students in our community.

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