What Makes Nation's Top School the Best?

May 1, 2006 — -- In one the roughest neighborhoods in Dallas, sits a gem of a public high school.

Its students are among the best and the brightest in the nation. The teachers are dynamic, and the students are passionate about learning.

The School for the Talented and Gifted in Dallas, known as TAG, has a student-teacher ratio of 13-to-1, and Newsweek has ranked it as the nation's top school, based on a formula of test scores and graduation rates. The students, 60 percent of whom are minorities, are committed to education and give up the traditional high school activities like sports and cheerleading to go to TAG. Some travel an hour or more each way to attend class.

"It's mind-blowing that this small school with just 200 kids is one of the best," said Evie Adams, a freshman at TAG.

At TAG, piping up in class is encouraged and debate is never stifled. In environmental science, the students argue about global warming.

"It's kind of casual with the teachers," said Aaron Zarraga, a senior. "In every class that I'm in, we're always open to discussion. You know, going against what teachers say."

Desks are situated in a circle, putting every student in the front row. In senior advanced placement English, teacher Minnie Jackson incorporates Russian literature and philosophy because that is what her students love.

"Whatever they love, then you know how you have to have a passion for whatever you do, then I think bringing that passion to them makes it much easier," she said.

'You Have the Capacity'

Principal Michael Satarino is part cheerleader and part drill sergeant. He gives the students the unvarnished truth about the choices that lie ahead.

"You have the capacity within you to be the CEO of a major corporation," he said. "You also have the capacity to flip burgers. Which do you want to do?"

The curriculum isn't easy, and most of the classes are college level, even for freshmen, but the benefits are plentiful.

"We tell the parents and the students if you come here, if you do what these teachers tell you to do and apply your talents and gifts, we promise you that in four years, you'll cross the stage going to a college or university with money," Satarino said.