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

I Moved Back to Houston Because YES Prep is the Best School in the Country

June 09, 2011 by Amanda Edwards

California: the name conjures images of movie stars, ocean views and eternal sunshine. As a recent resident of the state I can confirm that the hype is true. It’s all it’s cracked up to be. I have just left all this behind to take up residence anew in humid Houston, Texas. “Why?” you’re likely screaming at your computer screen. Why would you leave behind the glories of the Bay Area for this sweltering concrete jungle? As they say around here, the answer is YES. After working in and with a lot of other schools in California and around the country I am convinced that no one is doing a better job closing the achievement gap in underserved communities than YES Prep. The relentless pursuit of results married to a sincere concern for who the kids will be, not just what scores they will earn,

Continue reading I Moved Back to Houston Because YES Prep is the Best School in the Country...

--
3 Comments

Why Houston is Poised to be the First City in the Country to Close the Achievement Gap

May 26, 2011 by Jeremy Jones

There isn’t much mystery as to why we exist in Houston. The drop-out rate stands at about half, crippling the future of our local economy and giving rise to a generation of children that will be worse off in terms of quality of life than their parents. A sixth grader growing up in a low-income neighborhood has a 1 and 10 chance of graduating from a four-year college. Even when we factor in 6th graders from all neighborhoods, their chances only rise to about 1 out of 7. Houston is quickly becoming a microcosm of what our country soon will be: a city of immigrant and/or low-income families that pushes the racial, ethnic, national and economic composition of city away from what we once knew, becoming a “majority minority” environment. When we talk about the achievement gap, we have to

Continue reading Why Houston is Poised to be the First City in the Country to Close the Achievement Gap...

--
1 Comments

Houston Needs a Fresh Start For Public Education

May 17, 2011 by Jeremy Jones

When I first moved to Houston, I despised the place. I mean, lets be honest, the traffic is tantamount to the 6th circle of Hates, August and September heat/humidity do more to drive a person insane than Fran Dresher’s voice, and there are three Starbucks on one corner of our city giving credence to the idea that River Oaks is saturated with self-indulgence. I grew up in the Austin area and come to Houston by way of New Orleans as a Hurricane Katrina refugee. I was leaving behind one of America’s most beloved cultural paradises between Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi river for our country’s fourth largest city overflowing with rivers of concrete and a flood of sprawl. I was forced to confront some deep cultural expectations: no one from Austin ever moves east to that big city on

Continue reading Houston Needs a Fresh Start For Public Education...

--
0 Comments

YES Prep Student Selected to the Class of 2012 Houston Leadership for Tomorrow

May 11, 2011 by Ayana Allen

Michaela Green, a current Junior at YES Prep Southwest, has been selected to the Class of 2012 Houston Leadership for Tomorrow team.  Below is some more information about the program from their website.  Please leave us a comment to tell us how proud you are of Michaela!

Houston Leadership for Tomorrow (HLT), an MLT affiliate, today announced the selection of its seventh class of HLT Emerging Leaders. The 59 Emerging Leaders in the HLT Class of 2012 include members of the Mayor’s Youth Council, Eagle Scouts actively serving the Houston community through their service projects, young social entrepreneurs who have developed programs on their campuses to address the needs of the less fortunate, and a student who spent her junior year studying in Taiwan. The class also includes

Continue reading YES Prep Student Selected to the Class of 2012 Houston Leadership for Tomorrow...

--
3 Comments

Senior Signing Day Should Be A National Holiday

May 02, 2011 by Mark DiBella

I have decided to make it official. Senior Signing Day is now a national holiday. I haven’t actually gotten this approved by anyone but I have emailed the President, so I’ll let you know when I find out more. Given that I look forward to SSD more than my own birthday, I’ve decided it needs to take its place as a fully recognized holiday. In fact, as I was heading to SSD on Friday, I started making a list of my favorite days every year. It was crazy to realize that next to Christmas and Thanksgiving, SSD is arguably my favorite day of the year. Of course, the last day of school is a close 4th.

For those of you that have never attended a Senior Signing Day, you should put next year's event on your calendar.  Senior Signing Day started as a way to honor our graduating seniors for the

Continue reading Senior Signing Day Should Be A National Holiday...

--
0 Comments