Teach at YES Prep
YES Prep needs a dynamic and diverse teaching force to make our mission a reality. As a YES Prep teacher, you will achieve jaw-dropping results, create pathways to opportunity for our students, build transformative relationships, and eliminate educational inequities to advance social justice. Join YES Prep in our movement to close the opportunity gap through high-quality education in Houston.
The Opportunity
- Developing rigorous lessons in your specific content area in order to prepare your students for college and beyond while bridging gaps for marginalized communities
- Setting ambitious goals with your students and working alongside them to encourage and ensure they achieve those goals through frequent and consistent feedback
- Persisting in the face of challenges, learning from mistakes, and setting a strong example of character for your students
- Growing professionally in your craft of teaching by both receiving and giving feedback on a consistent basis
- Building meaningful and long-lasting relationships with students, colleagues, and families
- Working on a team of teachers and leaders to provide consistency, support, and accountability to all students
Learn more about our Teaching Excellence Alternative Certification Program
The Person
At YES Prep, we seek teachers with diverse backgrounds, talents, interests, and ideas to meet the needs of our growing body of students. Certain traits consistently shine through our most successful teachers: passion for the mission, drive for results, care for students, resilience, and humility.
As a teacher at YES Prep, you must meet the following requirements:
Education
- Bachelor’s Degree from an accredited institution
- Grade Point Average of 2.5
Certification
There are several acceptable ways to meet the requirement, you must have one of the following:
- A valid Standard Texas teaching certification
- A valid teaching certification in another state
- A valid teaching certification in another country with credentials reviewed by Texas Education Agency (TEA)
- Enrolled in a state-accredited Education Preparation Program or Alternative Certification Program in pursuit of a teaching certification
The Reward
At YES Prep, you will have the opportunity to prepare your students for college graduation every day. And to help make sure you can, YES Prep is committed to developing each member of our team into the dynamic, high-achieving leader our students and schools need.
Development at every step and for every stage.
Whether you are brand new to teaching, have been in schools for years, or are a central office team member, YES Prep offers consistent development differentiated to your needs.
Leadership opportunities.
We are a swiftly growing and changing organization and have found that our most impactful leaders are those we grow from within. Because of this, we have developed the Leading Excellence Program to grow our next generation of YES Prep leaders. What is distinctive about our program is that it does not focus solely on school leadership. We know that we have a diverse group of future leaders, so no matter what role you are in or where you are in your career, if you aspire to lead, we are committed to providing you the development to become a strong leader. Read more about our leadership opportunities here.
A salary worthy of your impact.
We believe that a large part of our strength as an organization comes from having unparalleled talent in the classroom. We believe that teaching is a craft that is improved upon over time, and we have created our evaluation and compensation system to emphasize this belief. Teachers starting at YES Prep begin either as First Year (new to teaching) or New to Blue (experienced teachers new to YES Prep).
The 2024–2025 starting salary for first year teachers is $61,000.
In addition to a strong base salary, YES Prep offers a comprehensive benefits package. Our benefits include:
- Health and Supplemental Insurance – A $0.00 medical option that includes $600 towards a Health Savings Account, in addition to a variety of supplemental benefits including Dental, Vision, Short and Long-Term Disability, Pet Insurance, Life Insurance, and free basic life insurance for full-time staff, etc.
- Retirement Plans – Participation in Teacher Retirement System of Texas and a 457b Retirement Plan.
- Paid Time Off – 10 days of Paid Time Off for full-time 10-month employees in addition to the system closures of our Academic Calendar.
- Paid Leave Programming – In the event you need to be out due to medical needs (including maternity and paternity leave), YES Prep offers 3 - 10 weeks of full paid leave for employees who have been on staff for one or more years.
- Professional Development - YES Prep values longevity and performance over time. We invest in developing leaders through high-quality programs, effective coaching, and ongoing professional development.
- Award Winning Culture – The strong cultures of our campuses and Home Office are just one of many reasons we were named Houston’s Best Place to work in 2018 and 2019. We won the 2012 Broad Prize for Excellence in Urban Education and were a 2016 finalist as well.
Teacher Incentive Allotment Eligibility – YES Prep Public Schools is a TIA eligible district. This means that qualifying teachers can earn an additional $3,000 to $30,000 in incentive pay. To learn more about this benefit offered through the Texas Education Agency click here.
Resources
Below are resources to help you learn more about being a teacher at YES Prep.
Teaching Excellence
YES Prep's alternative certification program
Teaching Excellence (TE) exists to transform talent by providing exceptional coaching and professional development in order to accelerate teacher effectiveness.
Teacher Incentive Allotment
The Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA) provides an accessible pathway for effective teachers to earn a higher income while remaining in the classroom.
A Day in the Life of a YES Prep Teacher
Learn more about a typical day for an elementary and a secondary teacher at YES Prep.
Sample Lessons for Dec. 7 Hiring Event
Elementary
| Sample Lesson Preparation Checklist | Checklist |
| Model Student Work Exemplar | Exemplar |
Course |
Portion of Lesson |
Lesson |
| Elementary SLA | Complete your student work (exemplar work) for “Paso 2” outlined in the teacher guide. The text is at the end of the curricular resources packet. | SLA Grade 3 |
| Elementary RLA | Complete your student work (exemplar responses and annotations) for the “Notice and Wonder” portion of the lesson. Annotate what you would want students to notice, thinking, and wonder as they read the text and create a “Notice and Wonder” chart at the end. | |
| Elementary Kindergarten | Complete your student work (exemplar responses and annotations) for the “Learn: Share Questions” portion of the lesson. Annotate what you would want students to notice, thinking, and wonder as they read the text and Wonder Chart for the end. | Monolingual PreK & K |
| Elementary Math | Complete your student work (exemplar responses) for the “Concept Development” problems 1 and 2 portions of the lesson outlined in the Teacher Guide. This means that you should complete the problems and annotations in the same way you’d expect from students. | 3rd - 5th Math |
| Elementary Science | Prepare for how you would model the content in slides 6-12. Then, complete your student work (exemplar responses) for slides 13-16. This means that you should complete the problems and annotations in the same way you’d expect from students. | 5th Science |
| Elementary SPED Self-Contained | Read the text Hippos Want to Dance. Then, prepare for the story review and story recall from the Teacher’s Edition for Level 2 students. Prepare questions you would ask students and exemplar responses to your questions for the review and recall. |
Secondary
| Sample Lesson Preparation Checklist | Checklist |
| Model Student Work Exemplar - Secondary STEM | Exemplar |
course |
portion of lesson |
copies |
| Algebra I | Complete your student work (exemplar responses) for the “Explain” portion of the lesson. This means that you should complete the problems and show your work in the same way you’d expect from students. | algebra 1 & geometry |
| English I | Complete your student work (exemplar responses) for the Do First and pre-reading activity. This means that you should annotate the text and draft responses to the pre-reading in the same way that you would expect from students. In addition, read the daily details for the lesson to understand the flow. | English i & english ii |
| AP English Language | Complete your student work (exemplar responses) for the During portion of the lesson. This means you should annotate the text and draft responses to the questions in the same way that you would expect from students. In addition, read the daily details for the lesson to understand the flow. | AP Lit, AP Lang, IRC |
| 8 Social Studies | Complete your student work (exemplar responses) for the “Explore” section of the lesson. This means that you should answer questions and annotate in the same way you’d expect from students. | SS6, SS7, SS8 |
| 8 Science | Complete your student work (exemplar responses) for the “Explore” section of the lesson. This means that you should answer questions and annotate in the same way you’d expect from students. | Science 8 |