YES+Prep+Public+Schools+-+North+Central+Houston,+Texas


 * || Yes || No ||
 * low attrition ||  || x ||
 * high test scores || x ||  ||
 * high graduation rate || x ||  ||
 * high college acceptance rate || x ||  ||
 * fair representation of ELL and SpEd ||  || ? ||
 * high % of students with free or reduced lunch || x ||  ||
 * equal funding to nearby failing school ||  || x ||
 * no discrimination against low performing students for admission ||  || ? ||

@http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/aeis/

For the two graduating classes of YES Prep - North Central [|state data] The class of 2010 2004 6th grade 84 students (Though USA Today says it was 100) 2005 7th grade 93(?) students 2006 8th grade 58 students 2007 9th grade 74(?) students 2008 10th grade 53 students 2009 11th grade 44 students 2010 12th grade 43 students

The class of 2011 2005 6th grade 145 students 2006 7th grade 91 students 2007 8th grade 88 students 2008 9th grade 97 (?) students 2009 10th grade 78 students 2010 11th grade 68 students 2011 12th grade (from newspaper report about graduation) 55 students

The class of 2012 2006 6th grade 112 2007 7th grade 109 2008 8th grade 121? 2009 9th grade 121 2010 10th grade 96 2011 11th grade 73 2012 12th grade 61

The class of 2013 2007 6th grade 135 2008 7th grade 135 2009 8th grade 120 2010 9th grade 114 2011 10th grade 101 2012 11th grade 79 2013 12th grade 79

We're looking at at least 50% attrition.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-01-04-yes-prep-college_N.htm USA Today article that mentions that 100 students were 'whittled to' 43 http://yesprep.org/AboutYES/topic/history/ History of YES. Give indication that original class sizes are over 100.

http://yesprep.org/TheAnswer/full/proof_that_yes_prep_is_transforming_houston/ Says only 7% of 6th grades will eventually graduate college in HISD.
 * Claim by YES quoted by Wendy Kopp that by 2014 YES will produce twice as many college graduates as the rest of HISD combined**

In a debate at the Aspen Ideas Festival 2011, Wendy Kopp makes the claim that when they open their 5th campus in 2014, they will “produce as many high school graduates as the rest of HISD.” A pretty amazing and convincing stat. Unfortunately it is a lie. YES academy is a school that has been featured on Oprah and elsewhere because of it’s amazing record that 100% of their graduates get accepted into college. I researched their numbers and found that this year they graduated a total of 175 students in their four campuses. At their North Central campus, they had only 43 graduates in 2010. Six years earlier, there were 100 sixth graders at that school, which indicates a huge attrition. Some of the schools don’t have a senior class yet, but I’ve estimated based on the state website which you are welcome to check yourself, they should graduate around 250 seniors in 2014. HISD has 200,000 students with 9,503 graduates in 2010.

Well, fortunately the founder of YES prep, Chris Barbic, is someone I have known for 19 years. I don’t know if he will still consider me a friend after this, but I wrote to him to ask what Wendy might have meant. He explained that she should have said that they would have the same number of low-income students who graduate COLLEGE as the entire HISD. The estimation is based on the assumption that they will fix their attrition problem so they will have 450 seniors and that ALL 450 of those seniors will eventually graduate college (which is a pretty big assumption) and also on an assumption that only 500 of those 9,500 graduates from the rest of HISD are low-income students who will ultimately graduate college (which is an even more outrageous assumption).