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

CSI: YES Prep Southwest

March 29, 2010 by Jeremy Jones

Are YES Prep students getting an authetic college prep experience?  The Answer is YES.  Check out this guest blog post by Keith Desrosiers, PreCalculus teacher at YES Prep Southwest.

PreCalculus students have spent the past eight months solving endless problem sets, proving trigonometric identities, analyzing graphs of functions, modeling real world phenomena using sinusoidal and exponential models, the list goes on and on. They have spent countless hours studying mathematics, preparing for success in AP Calculus and beyond, and constantly asking the question “Where is all this stuff used?” Although I am always looking for ways to incorporate these mathematical ideas into the real world through application problems, nothing beats the opportunity to get out of the classroom and

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OOOOOklahoma, where YES Prep students visit on Spring College Tours

March 16, 2010 by Donald Kamentz

We believe that it isn’t enough just to get students into college, but to ensure that students persist to college graduation. A key element to achieve that goal is finding colleges that truly fit the needs of our students. Beginning in the sixth grade, we take spring college tours that first create the mindset around college access and secondly allow students to experience many college and university environments so they will be better informed when the time comes to apply and matriculate. 

In the second week of March 2010, the 10^th grade students at YES Prep Southwest toured the colleges of North Texas and Oklahoma. Below is a compilation of their experiences:

10^th grade social studies teacher, Zach Verriden: "I had the most amazing opportunity to spend a week touring colleges in

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835: The number of YES Prep Students on spring college tours

March 10, 2010 by Jeremy Jones

13…835…30,600…53…45…40… Numbers Everywhere But What Do They Mean?

You like numbers?   Well, try these on as YES Prep Public Schools embarks on a historic week of having the most ever spring college tours occur in the same week all across the country!   So, you ready for a little numbers game?   Here goes:

·         13 – number of spring college tours happening from four different YES Prep high school campuses - Southeast, North Central, Southwest and East End!

·         835 - number of students and staff participating on these trips

·         30,600 – number of miles that will be travelled this week either by plane, bus or 15-passenger vans

·         53 – number of colleges and universities that will be visited this week alone by YES Prep

·         45 – number of YES Prep

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Can Inner City Prep School Succeed? Answer is YES

January 03, 2010 by Jeremy Jones

Please take time to read the AP article on YES Prep's Senior Class and the College Counseling program in the Houston Chronicle, Miami Herald, Washington Post, ABC News, and many other news outlets. Tell us what you think!

By MONICA RHOR Associated Press

HOUSTON — It was Deadline Day at YES Prep North Central, the day college applications were supposed to be finished, the day essays, personal statements and a seemingly endless series of forms needed to be slipped into white envelopes, ready for submission.

The day the school's first graduating class would take one leap closer to college.

The seniors inside Room A121 were sprinting, scurrying and stumbling to the finish line. They hunched over plastic banquet tables, brows furrowed and eyed fixed on the screens of Dell laptop

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It Takes a Village to Send Students to College

December 27, 2009 by Jeremy Jones

Edutopia, the George Lucas Educational Foundation, explores what makes YES Prep North Central special for teachers and students.  In there exploration, senior producer, Grace Rubenstein, found something even more special - the investment of families.  Read Grace's article at Edutopia.

Article Excerpt:

"Our students are here because they're on a mission," says teacher Craig Brandenburg. They dig deep and recover from setbacks, he adds, because "they know their ultimate goal is to prepare themselves for college. And not just going to college, but completing it."

This was not always the plan for most YES Prep kids -- and that's the whole point.

Mayra Valle is a warm, bubbly leader in the school's performing arts group. When she graduates this spring, she will be the first in her

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