Launching a Girls’
Public School:
Leaders’ Perspective
Paula Harris, Trustee member, Board of Education
Delesa O’Dell Thomas, Principal
Jyoti Malhan, Dean of Instruction
Houston ISD
Young Women’s College
Preparatory Academy
Established Fall 2011
Leaders’ Perspective
The First All Girls Public School in a large Urban
School District
Our Biggest Challenge
“COMMUNITY AND STAKEHOLDER BUY IN”
Single Gender Schools
• A very new model for our parents
• A very new model for our students
• Different from a large comprehensive high
school
• A magnet program- selective admission
process
HISD's Single-Sex Schools:
Not Quite a Hot Ticket . (Jan. 27,
2011) Houston Chronicle
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/...
The Houston school board announced with
great fanfare two months ago the opening of
separate schools for girls and... Forty girls and
23 boys have applied for the schools, which
have slots for 200 girls and 250 boys, HISD
spokesman Jason Spencer tells Hair Balls. …
Our Outreach to our community
• Create a brochure with our girls who applied
• (took pictures at Rice Univ. campus)
• Sought our parents as our spokespersons
• Sought our new teachers to recruit at their
• campuses
• Created a genderschools eblast for all parents
who applied
Contd…
• Sought our students to recruit at their
campuses
• Constant communication and aggressive
follow up with anyone who applied or
contacted us
• Buy in from applicants and parents was our
strongest ally
• Word of mouth more powerful than anything
else
May 7 – Our first parent
information session !
We were blown away !!
Have not looked back since !!!
At our parent session we talked about our
– Our new campus (location, security)
– Our curriculum (Pre AP /AP)
– Our teachers (Highly qualified and experienced)
– Our innovative camps (STEM, Writers in Schools)
– Our afterschool activities and electives
Preliminary responses from our
stakeholders
• I did not want to come to this school in August
but I do not want to leave now- 9th grade
student
• I forced her to come but she loves it now- 6th
grade parent
• My friend wants to know what else can she do
to get her daughter here. She has perfect
scores on the state test- YWCPA parent
• Was that change of class, so quiet- future
parent touring campus
Benefits of Attending
YWCPA
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Single gender / no distraction from boys
Uniforms
Magnet (separate and unique)
Nurturing learning environment
Each girl receives a I-Mac during school year
Spring Board Curriculum
Acceleration/College Preparation
Private school concept in a public school
Sisterhood
10 REASONS TO ATTEND YWCPA
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The HISD Advanced Placement magnet school
Rigorous college preparatory curriculum with all Core coursework Pre AP/AP
Highly qualified experienced teachers with master’s and doctoral degrees
Personal MacBook laptops for every girl
College tours starting in 6th grade
Free mandatory STEM based summer camps for all girls starting in 6th grade
Partnership with IPAA for creating a Petroleum Academy at YWCPA
Two years of high school foreign language credit in Middle school
Algebra for all by 8th grade (15% of our girls take Algebra in 7th)
Dual credit classes in 11th and 12th grade
Enrichment & the Arts
After School Programs
• Strings
• Volleyball/basketball/lacrosse/soccer clubs
• Photography
• Theater
• Step Team
• Dance
• Clown Art
• Science Club
• History Club
• Cheerleading
• Mentoring
Rigor and Innovation drives our
curriculum
• A group of 7th graders in Pre AP Algebra I ( a 9TH grade course)
• All 6th graders are taking 7th grade math
• Mac book computers for every girl
• Innovative and unique summer program opportunities on and off
campus ( WITS, 3D Prototyping camp taught by Rice Univ., DUKE TIP
Kaplan class, underwater robotics)
• Partnership with IPAA (sponsorships, internships, engineering
courses)
• UH partnership ( Students from College of Engineering teach twice a
week)
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Rigor and Innovation drives our
curriculum, contd…..
•Electives and after school programs include robotics, orchestra,
lacrosse, theater arts, choir, leadership and team building
•History fair state level wins
•NASA partnerships
•Visit from Ms America
•Research /Dissertation class for middle school
•61 out of 119 students in 7th grade invited to test for Duke Tip scholar
program
Thanks to a national study conducted by UCLA's
Graduate School of Education & Information
Studies(2010), we have well-documented evidence
that all-girls school graduates entering their first year
of college consistently assess their abilities, selfconfidence, engagements and ambition as stronger
across the academic disciplines than do their peers
from coed schools.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10204/1074653-109.stm#ixzz1m5GtIVou
Current Research & News
A Right to Choose Single-Sex Education
U.S. senators Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and Barbara Mikulski, D-Md.,
write this opinion article in support of offering the option of single-gender
instruction, saying studies show it can improve student performance -particularly in math and science.
International Day of the Girl: Why Science & Math Programs Matter
Reaching young women by the time they enter college is not soon enough.
…to increase female representation in STEM majors it is essential to engage
girls in related activities at K-12 levels. A few organizations have recognized
this gap and created programs to address it. Microsoft's DigiGirlz Hi-Tech
Camp, Black Girls Code and the NSF-funded National Girls Collaborative
Project support STEM programs for underserved communities.
Year 1: We are proud of our Girls’
Exemplary Performance !!!
One of the 5 schools out of 45 at
the middle school level to meet
AYP based on first year’s state test
scores. ( though we did not count
for the same as we were in our first
year).
STAAR 2012
th
7 Grade Data
STAAR EOC 2012
Biology Data
Young Women’s College
Preparatory Academy
2012 EOC Summary
STAAR End of Course (9th grade)
Subject
Spring Percentages
Summer Percentages
Geometry
94
100
Biology
99
99
World Geography
95
99
ELA – Reading
88
94
ELA – Writing
61
86
Algebra 1
92
93
Our Campus
1906 Cleburne, Houston TX, 77004
Young Women Today,
Leaders Tomorrow
Foundation for the
Education of Young Women
Our Core Values
1. College Preparation
2. Leadership
3. Wellness Skills
Sponsorship/Funding/Partnership
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FEYW
Private Donations
Grants
Advisory Council
Texas Wall Street Women (TXWSW)
Independent Petroleum Association of America
Junior Achievement
Sally Ride Science
Space Center Houston, NASA
General Electric
Texas Association of Minority Engineer s
Writers in The Schools
YMCPA & YWCPA
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Extended lunch
PTOs collaborate
Socials/dances
Service learning projects
Leadership Events
Admission Requirements
• Must have a 75% or better average in all classes
• Must have met state requirements for advancement
to the next grade level
• Must desire and be committed to attend a four-year
college or university.
• Must have good attendance and behavior
• If selected for admission, must attend an interview
with parent, guardian, and/or primary caregiver.
–W
We will prepare and apply to the best!!!
Our girls at the Apple store
Golf as an elective class
History Fair winners and STEM Exposure
Walk for Juvenile Diabetes
Visits to Rice & other Universities
Partnership with IPAA
Introduce a girl to Engineering Day at
Exxon
Doctor’s day Outreach at YWCPA
Stem Camp at Tyler
FEYW Schools
Houston
Dallas
Austin
Lubbock
Fort Worth
San Antonio
We are a…
Contact Information
Paula Harris, HISD Trustee
pharris@slb.com
Delesa O’Dell- Thomas, Principal
dthomas1@houstonisd.org
Jyoti Malhan, Dean
jmalhan@houstonisd.org
WEBSITE
http://schools.houstonisd.org/YWCPA
Questions and Answers