Texas Charters Listed in Top 100 of America's Best High Schools
Newsweek's annual ranking of the best high schools in America identifies two Texas charter schools on its list of the Top 100. The ranking identifies North Hills as 12th in the nation and YES College Prep as 87th. This is the first year Newsweek has included charter schools.

North Hills is a first generation charter with over 900 students from sixteen different school districts in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Since its inception in 1996 North Hills has been designated either Exemplary or Recognized every year and all of the 2005 graduating seniors who applied for their IB diploma earned this distinction with 100% entering college. Many families with Latin, Indian, European and Asian backgrounds enroll their students at North Hills to take advantage of the rigorous International Baccalaureate curriculum.

YES College Prep - Southeast is one of three YES campuses in greater Houston and the only one serving high school students. YES - SE serves 650 students in grades 6-12 from 40 different zip codes. YES is the only school in Houston to make the Top 100 list and there is no school ranked ahead of YES with a higher percentage of students on free and reduced-price lunch. Approximately 95% of the students are African-American and Hispanic and 75% qualify for free and reduced-price lunch; one hundred percent matriculate to a four-year college including Stanford, Yale, Duke, UT, and Texas A&M. Students spend approximately 67% more time in the classroom than students in traditional schools.

Texas Credit Enhancement Program Training
The Texas Credit Enhancement Program has $7 million to use for debt service reserve funds for eligible Texas charter schools that submit a TCEP application by September 15, 2006 and are approved. The Texas Public Finance Authority, TEA and the Resource Center will host two TCEP training sessions to explain TCEP and answer questions. All potential TCEP applicants are strongly encouraged to attend one of the following training sessions at TEA, Room 1-104, in the William B. Travis Building, 1701 N. Congress, Austin:

Monday, May 15, 2006 at 1:30 p.m.
Tuesday, May 23, 2006 at 1:30 p.m.