Expansion & Growth

YES Prep Public Schools, an award-winning Texas public charter school system, is embarking on its next phase with its new strategic plan, Leading Houston Forward. 

Leading Houston Forward

Leading Houston Forward is a five-year plan to build YES Prep’s elementary schools, add 10,000 high quality seats, and strengthen its results to serve 23,000 students by 2024. This plan is a deepened commitment to the Houston community as well as the continuation of the school system’s mission to  empower all Houston students to succeed in college and to pursue lives of opportunity..

Students that start with an excellent pre-K education are much more likely to be reading on grade level at third grade, which is the single greatest determinant of whether they’ll go on to graduate high school.” – Mark DiBella, CEO 

Mark DiBella announced the strategic plan on August 2, 2019, at YES Prep’s annual all-staff kickoff event. DiBella also proudly shared that nearly 97% of YES Prep students attend an A or B school rated by the Texas Education Agency, with no YES Prep school rated as a D or F. “Our work, however, is not done,” DiBella adds.  “We are working around the clock to continue to bolster our schools and provide students the best school experience and education possible.” 

Strategic Priorities

The strategic priorities of Leading Houston Forward are directly connected to YES Prep’s core model.

• Educational Equity: Ensure that every child in Houston has greater access to YES Prep pre-K through 12th grade education. 
• Student Achievement: Ensure that in every school, in every classroom, every day, ALL students engage in rigorous, aligned and active learning, dramatically increasing their college readiness. 
• Culture & Identity: Embrace the diverse communities, cultures, identities and abilities of ALL students,  empowering all Houston students to succeed in college and to pursue lives of opportunity.. 
• Talent: Continue to attract diverse, extraordinary talent at every level and will purposefully increase inclusivity, retention and development of teammates. 
• Support Systems & Processes: Make optimal use of systems and data, and share innovative best practices to significantly increase agility, productivity and sustainability.

2024 Goals

Underlying, the strategic priorities are the goals YES Prep hopes to achieve by 2024: 

• Ensuring that at least 93% of YES Prep students stay at YES Prep year over year 

• Be an “A district” with a high rating for all schools 

• Open 10 elementary schools and create 10,000 high-quality seats growing total enrollment to 23,000 

We know that we need to get into early childhood. If we’re in early childhood, we can help kids read on grade level and get them ready to go to college. It starts as early as pre-K” – DiBella 

The first year of the plan was devoted to establishing a robust infrastructure to ensure YES Prep remains accountable to Leading Houston Forward goals. There is a focus on launching the first two elementary schools, implementing programmatic improvements, improving student culture and redesigning the teacher evaluation and compensation system. 

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Leading Houston Forward