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Houston KickoffCommunication

2014-2015

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This looks a little long. Why read it?

Get informed of our initiatives, priorities & direction.

Get prepared to be fully engaged for Houston Kickoff.

Get excited about 2014 – 2015. Our Year. Your Year.

WHAT is in this DOCUMENT?

+ Redefine Possible

+ YES Prep Houston Vision Statement

+ OUR YEAR. YOUR YEAR.

+ YES Prep Houston

+ YES Prep Memphis

+ The Strategic Priorities

+ Context from Mark DiBella

+ Why we Must Succeed

+ Strategic Priority 1

+ Strategic Priority 2

+ Strategic Priority 3

+ Strategic Priority 4

+ Announcements

+ Updates

• WHO WE ARE & WHERE WE ARE GOING

• WHAT WE PRIORITIZE & WHY WE MUST SUCCEED

• HOW WE WILL GET THERE

• WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

01 02 03 04OUR YEAR. YOUR YEAR.

WHO WE ARE & WHERE WE ARE

GOING

+ Redefine Possible

+ YES Prep Houston Vision Statement

+ OUR YEAR. YOUR YEAR.

+ YES Prep Houston

+ YES Prep Memphis 01

YES Prep Houston will meet the demand of Houston’s underserved communities with consistently excellent schools that guarantee every student served is prepared to graduate from college.

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Our Year. Your Year. We believe that this year we are poised to achieve jaw – dropping results as a Houston system. To do this, we must stay aligned to our priorities, live our core values and strive to do our very best for all students.

YES Prep Houston serves …

Our 13 schools striving towards consistent excellence in academic achievement, talent & culture inspire more families to seek a quality education. We will continue to grow in Houston to meet the needs of our community & to further the work we have started.

The upcoming plan for Houston growth is to open 2 new schools within the Sunnyside & historic Third Ward communities. We will also fulfill our growth plan of opening a high school collocating with Northbrook High School in Spring Branch ISD.

Campus 14 & 15

YES Prep Northbrook High School

YES Prep’s Collective Projected Growth by 2020

We have changed as an organization in the past year. We will fulfill our mission through the work of 3

teams – YES Prep National,

YES Prep Houston & YES Prep Memphis.

YES Prep Memphis

will go through

a community matching process

in September through November

to determine

where our schools

will be located.

As part of this process,

Memphis community leaders

will visit our Houston schools.

Opening our doors

to Memphis visitors allows

for us to highlight

how we can serve

future Memphis students

with a strong school culture

& exceptional teaching.

YES Prep Memphis

Growth in Houston &

expansion to Memphis allow for us to serve

more students, and continue to

establish ourselves as a public school

system that can redefine what is possible. Future

YES Prep students in Houston &

Memphis are awaiting an

opportunity to complete

college. Our 9,000 YES Prep

students cannot wait. Our

mission cannot wait. This is our

year.

WHAT WE PRIORITIZE & WHY

WE MUST SUCCEED

+ The Strategic Priorities

+ Context from Mark DiBella, Superintendent

+Why we Must Succeed 02

WHAT ARE OUR

STRATEGIC PRIORITIES

?

Our strategic priorities outline the work we are setting out to do and the organization we want to be. While all six are critical to the overall success of the organization, several are core to the work we do in Houston. Those will be 1, 2, & 4. We will also share about our Memphis expansion.

YES Prep Public Schools exists to redefine possible.

  

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YES Prep Strategic Priorities

Insert

• We all know Gandhi’s famous quote about being the change we wish to see in the world, but there is an equally powerful, lesser known quote from Gandhi that relates to the way in which we express our priorities in life—what we hold most dear.  Gandhi eloquently and succinctly said that “action expresses priorities.”

•  • For many, many years at YES Prep we have been

committed to action that expresses what we believe most dearly.  We believe that we must serve every student at every school with consistently excellent quality.  We believe that it is our responsibility to ensure that our students are prepared to complete college.  We believe that what we have learned and accomplished in Houston must be shared to serve the children of Memphis.  We believe that our talent is our greatest source of strength, and so we commit to doing “whatever it takes” to retain and grow our people.  Like Gandhi, we know that priorities do not exist merely as words on paper, but also in our daily actions.

•  • For the past year, we have been hard at work

crafting 6 statements, known as the YES Prep Strategic Priorities, that capture the actions that we, as individuals and as an organization, are most committed to accomplishing.  Though the statements alone are merely statements, when you connect them to what we have accomplished and what we will set out to accomplish this year—our year—they become the bedrock of who we are and how we will ACT in service of our greatest priorities—the thousands of students that we serve every day.

Mark DiBellaSuperintendent, YES Prep Houston

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We must succeed. In the next 5 years, YES prep will produce over 4,500 college-ready

graduates. By completing our projected growth, we will add 6,000 additional seats for deserving students in Houston. The

future of our city, our communities and our students is impacted by our success.

HOW WE WILL GET THERE

+ Strategic Priority 1

+ Strategic Priority 2

+ Strategic Priority 3

+ Strategic Priority 4 03

We are taking action on our priorities. This includes continuing what works, launching new initiatives & piloting solutions that will make our priorities a reality. Read on to learn more.

In order to fulfill our mission &

solve our most pressing problems,

we need your questions & feedback to

improve.

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Priority #1: YES Prep will prove that consistent excellence is possible for all students in a large, open enrollment public school system.

The YES Prep Campus Report Card (CRC) is our effort to measure great schools. With metrics on Student Achievement & Persistence, Talent & Campus Culture, campuses can analyze their performance & plan to address the needs of their students & teachers.

Consistent Excellence is Possible

This year, we have aligned our planning for the upcoming academic year as a system around our priorities. From our priorities, we have set goals & from those goals established drivers that will increase the likelihood that we will end the year successfully. Campus teams will get more information about

their individual CRC during early August.

Consistent Excellence is Possible

AP Lit AP Lang0

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2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

In 2014, YES Prep students earned a record breaking 184 qualifying scores in AP English.

Consistent Excellence is Possible

YES Prep students earned college credit on 1,160 AP exams. Overall, 60% of exams earned passing scores.

YES Prep high school students celebrated a 99% passing rate on the US History EOC & a 97% passing rate on the Biology EOC exam.

YES Prep Spanish scholars achieved jaw-dropping results on both the AP Language & AP Literature Spanish exams. 458 students earned credit on the Language exam & 127 students excelled on the Literature exam.

YES Prep students are persisting in our schools more than any other time in our history. Currently, we are on track to keep more of our students than ever before.

While we our students continue to achieve in different ways at all of

our campuses, we want to continue to increase the number of students

who demonstrate college readiness through their

performance on Common Assessments, the SAT, &

AP exams.

Consistent Excellence is Possible

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Priority #2: YES Prep will lead the nation in college completion rates for first-generation students.

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An in-depth look into our college initiatives approach is available here.www.yesprep.org/notices

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Priority #3: YES Prep will successfully launch high-performing YES Prep schools in Memphis.

STRATEGIC PRIORITY 3Getting ready for 2015 – 2016

How are we getting ready to open high-performing YES Prep schools in Memphis?

The Memphis Home Office team is in full effect. We have 10 staff members working on the planning for the opening of two schools in Fall of 2015. The team is working on curriculum development, student support initiatives, community & family engagement, talent recruitment, & new region system development.

How will current YES Prep Houston teachers & leaders prepare to serve in Memphis?

We have a Memphis Cohort of teachers & leaders in Houston who will transfer to Memphis in Summer of 2015. The cohort will meet every 6 weeks to engage in planning, learn more about the Memphis community, & effective strategies to teach & lead in our future schools.

Memphis Team Members HOME OFFICEKristina Bockhold Bill DurbinCory Edmonds Andy GoldinAnjelica HardinLaura Kerr Michael KerrLatronica Madison Roshani MahadevanMelissa PayneMaranda RushingMike RussomMemphis Teacher/Leader COHORTTish AlilionwuJon Denning Danitra Edmond Ray Green Greg LittleAaron MadsonBrittany McGruder Parker NelsonBrie Olootu Will Whipple Kristina Yelton

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Priority #4: YES Prep will be an employer of choice for extraordinary people, and will develop and retain our talent with unparalleled professional growth opportunities.

Extraordinary People that Persist

We will launch a new initiative to message & encourage our people to Commit to Five. Staying for at least five years in the organization will allow for our talent to engage in our development opportunities, & also experience the fulfillment of sharing in milestones with students or with the organization as we move into new phases of growth.

In the spring of 2014, we started an exploration of teacher & staff retention. We tasked our 2013 Leading Excellence Fellows with exploring the issue & offering solutions. In response to their work and the feedback of others across the system, we will create a Talent Persistence Task Force that will further this work & utilize the project findings.

InsertThe moment I knew I wanted to commit to my first five years at YES came at the end of my first year teaching in 2003, back when we were just one campus called YES College Prep. I was sitting in the audience for the Class of 2003 commencement ceremonies at the Wortham Center and Chris Barbic, School Director at the time, called out the names of people who had been at YES for five years – Jason Bernal, Bill Durbin and Jen Hines were in that group. These people were heroes to me, and still are, and I knew I wanted to strive to make the impact that they had made. To this day, I am still chasing them and their impact and moreover getting the chance to work with new people just as amazing each and every year who keep joining and pushing towards mission. I cannot imagine committing myself to any other organization as our work is never done. With a mission as grand as ours, it will never truly be done.

Chris ClaflinSchool Director – YES Prep Brays OaksOver 10 Years at YES Prep

Extraordinary Talent that Values DiversityIn order to fulfill our mission of serving our students, communities & team, we must understand & explore diversity in instructional practice, leadership, relationships & our own thoughts & behaviors.

This year, we will launch a Diversity Initiative. We will begin to define diversity, create a vision for who we want to be & how we want to engage in the work & decide on activities that we can pilot in order to gauge interest. Ultimately, as an organization, we aim to create a community in which everyone can flourish.

Send us your feedback via our Diversity Focus Group Survey. Let us know if you would like to get involved.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

+ Houston Kickoff Details

+ Content Day Details & Directions

+ Pre-order limited edition YES Prep T-Shirts

+ PTO Coverage Pilot Update

+ YES Prep Master Calendar 2014 – 2015 & Information

+ ACE Programming

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Program Schedule7:30 – 8:00 a.m. Early Breakfast & Coffee

8:00 – 9:30 a.m. Houston Kickoff Program

9:30 – 10:30 a.m. Travel to Content Day

Ways to Share about the Event

#yesprepHKO

Take advantage of the social media break in the middle of the program.

What to ExpectRoll Call

Updates on our system priorities

Music, giveaways & fun

Get Ready for Houston Kickoff

Get Ready for Content Day

LOCATION TEAM

YES Prep North Central

ELAScienceElectives (art, music, dance, theater, physical education, athletic directors, health, & technology)

YES Prep White Oak School Directors, Directors of Academics, Deans of Instruction, Deans of Students, College Initiatives, Student Support Counseling, Operations Managers, Registrars, Special Education, Front office & Medical

YES Prep Fifth Ward Math

YES Prep Northside Social StudiesWorld Languages

Pizza will be provided; drinks will not.

Arrange a carpool if possible to maximize parking.

Bring your laptop fully charged.

YES Prep North CentralYES Prep White Oak w/o TollsYES Prep White Oak w/TollsYES Prep Fifth WardYES Prep Northside w/o TollsYES Prep Northside w/Tolls

Get Directions to Content Day

Get swag at the new online YES Prep Store

Purchase fun YES Prep swag at www.yesprepstore.com.Available 08.05.2014.

YES Prep T-Shirt Sale @ the Houston Kick-OffFor ONE day only, we have the shirts above available at a discounted rate. $10 for one shirt; $15 for two shirts.Only cash will be accepted on Tuesday.  

Pre-Order your shirt here.Shirts will be available in limited quantity at the HKO & on sale until 8 a.m.

Designers: NancyPage Lowenfield & Thuy Nguyen

All profits go towards YES Prep student scholarships

Get updated on the PTO Coverage PilotLast spring, we announced that we would begin to explore a more effective system of securing coverage on campuses. This was in response to feedback on our system survey.

At the start of our investigation, we learned that we lack some

critical information around PTO & coverage that will help us make

the most informed decision. Thus far, we have been able to develop

a task force within the Home Office Leadership to begin a

regional pilot on PTO Coverage. This pilot will focus on testing a

system for tracking coverage needs & the response to PTO

requests. This is an important project and we commit to regular updates on our next steps.

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Get ready to plan ahead

The YES Prep Master Calendar for 2014 – 2015 is accessible for download.

Find system – wide events, meeting dates, vacation days

& other key calendar events to help you stay ahead.

Get the right information at the right time

The next installment of the Teacher Continuum Journal 2014 – 2015 will release in August. Send any feedback or questions to teacher.continuum@yesprep.org.

If you would like to communicate something system-wide, email Houston@yesprep.org with the request & we will find the appropriate vehicle to best communicate the information.

After School Centers on Education - ACE

@yesprepace

37% of YES Prep students at 9 campuses participated

in academic & extracurricular programming.

Share a hobby or interest with students & earn

extra duty pay.

Find the ACE Campus Coordinator on your

campus for more info & opportunities.

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OUR YEAR. YOUR YEAR.