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Teacher Ken McCoy’s high school in San Saba, Texas is unique by any standard. For one thing, it is a Star Schools model technology site. It also happens that the majority of its students have been convicted of one or more felony offenses, including violent crimes such as assault, sex offenses and capital 
murder. Housed within the San Saba State School-TYC facility, the accredited high school serves 370 male students from ages 11 to 19. By definition, youth sent to Texas Youth Commission (TYC) facilities are the state's most serious or chronically delinquent offenders. Most students have a history of abuse and neglect.
When McCoy moved to the central Texas town of San Saba, his main hope was to live in a less urban, more peaceful rural area. He had no idea that he would also make the most satisfying career move of his life. Even though he had been teaching and running a business for nearly 20 years, like most people, McCoy knew nothing 
about teaching in a correctional institution.
"You don’t understand what is really going on behind the walls of the [juvenile correctional] institution. It’s not at all like the image of adult prisons where the stereotype is that ordinary folk are being turned into hardened criminals. In fact, [at San Saba] it’s just the opposite of that stereotype. In the youth systems [in Texas Youth Commission facilities], hardened criminals are being turned into ordinary citizens."
This achievement is even more impressive when considering that working with incarcerated youth involves some unique challenges. Students attend San Saba on average only 18 months. Their reading and math achievement levels are usually four to five years behind their peers upon entry. Almost four times as many incarcerated students are eligible for special education services as compared to regular public education students. In fact, most juvenile offenders have almost no positive experience of education or discipline, and lack many of the most basic skills required to succeed in education or in life.