Awardees
Awardees

The 2024 Yass Prize Winner!
Primer Microschools
The 2024 Finalists
2024 Yass Prize Semifinalists
Meet the 25 Semifinalists selected for the 2024 Yass Prize
Other State Initiatives
Responding in real time to policy opportunities as well as challenges.
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The 2023 Yass Prize Winner!
Valiant Cross Academy
Congratulations to Valiant Cross Academy, the 2023 Yass Prize $1 Million Winner! Located in downtown Montgomery, Alabama, Valiant Cross Academy sits just across from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s church – a symbolic inspiration driving the school’s commitment to fostering success for its all-Black male students through faith and academic rigor.
The 2023 Finalists
Meet the 2024 Semifinalists

Milwaukee College Prep
Milwaukee, WI

Mission Achievement and Success Charter School
Albuquerque, NM

Modern States Education Alliance
National

Mountaineer Homeschool Hub
Morgantown, WV

National Fellowship for Black and Latino Male Educators
National

National Microschooling Center
Las Vegas, NV

Neighborhood Schools
Houston, TX

New Testament Christian Academy
Milwaukee, WI

New Way Global
Greenville, SC

Northeast Academy for Aerospace and Advanced Technologies
Elizabeth City, NC

Northern Cass School District
Hunter, ND

Notre Dame School of Milwaukee
Milwaukee, WI

Oakmont Education
Akron, OH

Odyssey
Washington, DC

Odyssey Charter School
Wilmington, DE

Odyssey Leadership Academy
Oklahoma City, OK

Old Sturbridge Academy
Sturbridge, MA

One City Schools
Madison, WI

Onward Learning
Martin, SD

OnYourMark
National

Open Sky Education
National

Optima Academy Online
Naples, FL & National

Parents Challenge
Colorado Springs, CO

Partnership Schools
New York, NY

Penn Hills Charter School of Entrepreneurship
Penn Hills, PA

Positive Tomorrows, Inc.
Oklahoma City, OK

Prenda
National

Prichard Preparatory School
Whistler, AL

Primer Microschools
Fort Lauderdale, FL

Purdue Polytechnic High Schools
Indianapolis, IN

Randolph Eastern School Corporation
Union City, IN

Rapunzl
Chicago, IL

RCMA Immokalee Community Academy
Immokalee, FL

RISE Hybrid Academy
Fredericksburg, VA

Rock by Rock
National

Rural Schools Innovation Zone
Premont, TX

SailFuture
St. Petersburg, FL

Savannah Legacy Academy
Savannah, GA

School of Hope
Fayetteville, NC

Short Answer
National

SOAR Academy
Evans, GA

Sora Schools, Inc.
National

Spark Academy of Advanced Technologies
Manchester, NH

Special Care
Oklahoma City, OK

St. Francis de Sales School
Philadelphia, PA

St. George Municipal School Unit
Tenants Harbor, ME

St. Mary’s Academy
New Orleans, LA

St. Philip the Apostle Catholic School
Camp Springs, MD

Thales Academy
National

The Discovery Center of Springfield
Springfield, MO

The High School for Recording Arts
St. Paul, MN

The Innovation School
Bismarck, ND

The Lab School of Memphis
Memphis, TN

The League of Young Inventors
Brooklyn, NY

The Melanin Village
National

The Oakland REACH
Oakland, CA

The Oaks Academy
Indianapolis, IN

Trivium Charter School Network
Lompoc, California

Tutwiler Community Education Center
Tutwiler, MS

unCommon Construction
New Orleans, LA

Urban Preparatory Academy
Wichita, KS

UrbaNeXt
Cincinnati, OH

Valiant Cross Academy
Montgomery, AL

Verdi EcoSchool
Melbourne, FL

Vertex Partnership Academies
Bronx, NY

VictoryXR
National

Vimenti
San Juan, PR

West Virginia Academy
Morgantown, WV

Wildflower Schools
Minneapolis, MN & National

WIN Academy at BridgeValley Community and Technical College
South Charleston, WV

Workshop Middle School
Brooklyn, NY

Young Women’s Preparatory Network
Dallas, TX

Zeta Charter Schools
Bronx, NY
End of Awardees
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Having the status of Yass Prize Semifinalist has opened doors that we’ve been knocking on for years,
including public recognition from our Governor and partnership conversations with other education innovators from around the country.
Yass brought us together, creating opportunities to create an educational universe within which we can look at education differently…
we have to find academic experiences that represent neuro-divergent learners, kids who want to learn about gaming, who want to do stuff online, who dropped out of school.
I’m dreaming bigger, bolder, and more bodacious [because of the Yass Prize].
It has helped me raise the ceiling on what’s possible.
When we follow the money, it’s ludicrous how this country is getting away with funding education.
The funding is not following children. We're trying to make better options for kids, for poor kids, middle class kids. Wealthy people have this choice, they opt out of their systems easily, why shouldn't all children have that choice?
I'm a Yass Prize finalist from last year.
And through that, we were able to open up our second campus in the city of Wichita.
Being a part of this experience has amplified the access we can give to our students in a way that nothing has, and the access is just critical.
The Yass Prize is almost like Burning Man for education reform.
The Yass Prize has brought together such diverse leaders
from all different demographics, all different states, all different service provider types that you can learn from.
It might be the first time you’re speaking where everyone is actually listening and cares about what you’re doing.
I don’t think I’ve been in a room as supportive as the Yass Prize Semifinalist room in Miami.
There is absolutely zero downside to being a part of this network by submitting your application and what you will encounter is unlike any other grant.
It's actually mind blowing. I really see myself as an education entrepreneur, but this expanded me.
One of the missions of the Yass Prize and the Yass Prize movement is really surfacing best practices in innovation—
in innovators who are doing this type of transformational work, so that others can learn from it and replicate it, so that you can actually grow yourselves.
Being a part of the [Yass] family confirmed that what I'm doing is right,
focusing on what we know is important for kids really works, and having a network of people now that also agree was super huge.
Our newest endeavor – that was part of our Yass Prize initiative – we're bringing career and technical education into the school
I'm in the process of going through the construction of a 20,000 square foot $11.5 million dollar building dedicated to career and technical education for the students in the Philadelphia region.