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Gifted Magnet Up for Title of Top U.S. School

Posted on: Monday, 1 May 2006, 12:01 CDT

By Scott Goldstein, The Dallas Morning News

Apr. 29--Word is that Dallas' School for the Talented and Gifted has a good shot at being named one of the top schools in the country in Newsweek 's annual "America's Best High Schools" list, due next week.

The clues are strong.

A camera crew from ABC television's Good Morning America was at the school Friday filming for a Monday morning segment about the No. 1 school on Newsweek's list, said principal Michael Satarino. He said the film crew told him his school, which is part of the Dallas school district's Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Center, would be featured on the show Monday if it is ranked No. 1.

He added that crew members said they had also been to at least two other high schools in the country.

"Good Morning America was there today interviewing students, and ... they said they were doing this in preparation, I guess, in case we made it," Mr. Satarino said Friday.

He said Newsweek photographers visited the school Monday and Tuesday and told him they had also been to two other schools in the country for work on the story.

Jay Mathews, the list's creator and an education columnist for The Washington Post, would not say where the Talented and Gifted magnet ranks, but he said more than one Dallas school performed well.

"There's going to be several Dallas schools that are going to be happy with the results," he said. "The Dallas schools look very good on our list."

Last year, the Dallas district's School of Science and Engineering was ranked sixth, and W.T. White High, also in DISD, was No. 77. Highland Park High School was 12th.

Newsweek arrives at its list of top public schools by adding the number of Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate tests taken by all students at a school the previous year, divided by the number of graduating seniors. This year's list includes 1,139 schools, Mr. Mathews said.

A Newsweek spokeswoman said the magazine does not comment on content before it is published. Mr. Satarino said he was told by the magazine that the list would be posted on Newsweek's Web site Sunday.

The School for the Talented and Gifted was excluded from last year's list because the rankings are intended to recognize schools that challenge average students and not those that require students to meet certain academic standards, as many magnets do. At the time, the list excluded schools that admitted more than half their students based on grades and test scores.

But Mr. Satarino protested, in part because the School of Science and Engineering, also on the Townview campus, has similar requirements and was on the list.

Mr. Mathews said the requirements were adjusted this year to include schools like the Talented and Gifted magnet. He said the new rules allow schools that base enrollment heavily on academics, as long as the school has an average SAT score below 1300 or average ACT score below 27.

"I thought a good cutting point would be to look at the normal enrollment schools in the country that have the highest SAT or ACT scores," he said. "The highest SAT appeared to be about 1300, and the highest ACT appeared to be a little under 27. ... I was happy to open the door to more schools."

Mr. Satarino said he never heard from Newsweek about why his school made the list this year.

The buzz among students at the school this week was that they will take the top ranking, said Caitlyn Schneider, a 17-year-old junior. She said a friend was included in a Newsweek photo shoot and overheard the photographers debating which photo could work as a cover shot.

Caitlyn said the fact that her school was kept off the list last year while the Science and Engineering School was ranked so highly is still a hot topic.

"I don't think a day goes by that that particular issue isn't mentioned," she said.

She said the top nod would be a boon for the school.

"Mostly I think it would mean a lot because we do work really hard at my school," she said. "And it would be fantastic to be recognized for what we do and how we perform academically."

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Source: The Dallas Morning News

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