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

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The goal of school is not to become good at school

March 29, 2011 by Jeremy Jones

 "The goal of school is to not become good at school."

– Jay McTighe, Author of Understanding by Design

This weekend at the ASCD conference was an outstanding shot to the arm of what great researchers are saying make up great schools. The quote above came in a session from Jay McTighe linking the UBD framework with the latest in neuroscience. It resonated with me because although so much of what we do pushes beyond the typical schools there is still so much we can do to ensure all students will be fully equipped in the multitudinous ways they need to be successful in the 21st Century. It starts by recognizing and continuing to embrace that our students’ success goes so much beyond what we do for them in the classroom. It’s the connections and relationships we are building for

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We’ve hired high achieving school leaders and here is how

January 10, 2011 by Bill Durbin

As Jen Hines highlighted in her recent blog, YES Prep’s fundamental secret to success is the high-caliber people it attracts, develops, and retains. Whether you are at Google, General Electric, or YES Prep, you have to continue to create opportunities for high-achieving staff to see a future in the organization and receive training that prepares them for increased leadership. If you do not create these opportunities, your organization will struggle to retain your best people, and the organizational results will suffer. While we are in the process of developing growth and leadership pathways for our teachers, we also offer teacher-leaders and school-level administrators leadership development opportunities that prepare them for success in their current and future roles. We call this

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Resolve to Make a Difference this Year.  Be a Leader in a YES Prep Classroom

January 02, 2011 by Jeremy Jones

It is amazing how Facebook offers a study of the human condition and the trends of thoughts and feelings of my friends and my networks.  For instance, yesterday (January 1st), the Texas Christian Horned Frogs became the first non-qualifier to win a BCS Bowl game in the Rose Bowl.  Of the 50 posts I saw immediately after the game, at least thirty of them had something to say about this.  Today, January 2nd, most people are checking in at airports across the country, heading back home to Houston from vacation.  Some are dreading it, others are excited.  Another trend I have seen over the past two days are the myriad resolutions that are being made.  I think that most of my friends are mature enough now to know what they'll actually accomplish this year, so I don't see many posts about

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The Top Blogs on YES Prep’s The Answer for 2010

December 29, 2010 by Jeremy Jones

The holiday season and the new year always bring about some reflective nostalgia that compels us to think about the best and worst from the previous 360 or so days and ponder what life will be like in the upcoming year.  There are some very definite and measurable ways that YES Prep will be changing in the next year that get this author very excited and will push me and my team to perform at levels beyond what we have ever operated.  For starters, we will officially enroll our 5,000th student.  That is halfway to our goal of serving 10,000 students in the Houston area.  Next, we will be sending 100% of our students to college from three fully grown YES Prep campuses in three very different Houston neighborhoods.  Southwest joins Southeast, our flagship campus, and North Central as a

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