The School for the Talented and Gifted at the

Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Magnet Center The Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Magnet Center (TMC) is a complex of schools in East Oak Cliff, Dallas, Texas, United States. The school names reflects the view of downtown Dallas.Macias, Anna.Starting this school was hard work. Hiring team of exper ...

(commonly referred to as TAG or TAG Magnet) is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...

college preparatory

magnet A magnet is a material or object that produces a magnetic field. This magnetic field is invisible but is responsible for the most notable property of a magnet: a force that pulls on other ferromagnetic materials, such as iron, steel, nicke ...

secondary school located in the Oak Cliff area of

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

. The school enrolls students in grades 9- 12 and is a part of the Dallas Independent School District. It is known for its liberal arts,

Advanced Placement Program Advanced Placement (AP) is a program in the United States and Canada created by the College Board which offers college-level curricula and examinations to high school students. American colleges and universities may grant placement and course ...

and intensive education style. In 2006, 2007, 2009, and 2010 ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...

'' named the school the #1 public high school in the United States. In 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016, '' U.S. News & World Report'' named TAG the #1 public high school in the United States. In 2015, the school was rated " Met Standard" by the

Texas Education Agency The Texas Education Agency (TEA) is the branch of the government of Texas responsible for public education in Texas in the United States.

History

The School for the Talented and Gifted was established in 1982 as part of a desegregation court order and was originally located in West Dallas on the L.G. Pinkston High School campus. Its curriculum was designed to provide a comprehensive academic program to serve identified talented and gifted students in grades nine through twelve. In the 1990s, the Dallas Independent School District allocated money for a new "magnet center" as an experiment in accelerated high school education. This magnet center would house six different schools, each offering college-preparatory and pre-professional programs alongside a solid academic education. The TAG Magnet, along with five other magnet schools, moved to the new

in the fall of 1995. Initially, TAG students were taught alongside the students at the other magnet schools, TAG instruction was cut from seven classes to three, and TAG teachers from thirteen to four. After a TAG protest that included petitions, letters to the newspaper, pleas to the school board, and walk-outs, TAG was given an increased number of self-contained classes and permission to have its own teaching staff specialized in teaching talented and gifted students.

Campus

The School for the Talented and Gifted is housed in the south section on the third floor of the

Students

During the spring semester a screening process is initiated to place incoming students drawn from across the Dallas Independent School District at the TAG Magnet for the following year. A holistic, case-study approach is used by the screening committee, which is composed of the principal, the counselor, teachers, and community representatives. Multiple identification criteria are used in the screening process including academic transcripts,

TAKS The Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) was the fourth Texas state standardized test previously used in primary education, grade 3-8 and secondary education, grade 9-11 to assess students' attainment of reading (activity), reading, wr ...

/ ITBS scores, a behavioral assessment, student portfolio, and anecdotal information. Careful attention is paid to pre-established guidelines to ensure that the student population is ethnically balanced. In the 2010–2011 school year there were 240 students enrolled, and the racial/ethnic makeup reflected the culturally diverse fabric of the larger school district as best as it could following the desegregation rulings of Judge

Barefoot Sanders Harold Barefoot Sanders Jr. (February 5, 1925 – September 21, 2008) was an American attorney, politician, and jurist who served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas and counsel ...

that required "improved programs for minority students and hiring goals for minority faculty and administration staff". The student population was 10.8% Asian/

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of O ...

, 16.7%

Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...

, 30.0%

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties forme ...

, and 42.5%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

. The school's gender makeup was not reflective of the larger school district, with 35% boys and 65% girls. The attendance rate for students at the school is 97.6%, compared with a state average of 95.5%. Of the 201 students at TAG 28.9% are economically disadvantaged, 0% enroll in special education, 100% enroll in gifted and talent programs, and 0% are considered "limited English proficient". The average class sizes at TAG used to be 14.8 students for English, 5.2 for

foreign language A foreign language is a language that is not an official language of, nor typically spoken in, a given country, and that native speakers from that country must usually acquire through conscious learning - be this through language lessons at school ...

, 13.7 for math, 16.4 for

science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

, and 16.8 for social studies but have since increased to about 20.

Faculty

During the 2006–2007 school year the TAG faculty consisted of 17 teachers with an average of 18.2 years of teaching experience and 11.9 years of experience teaching in DISD. Of those teachers, 1.1% are beginning teachers, 18.6% have 1–5 years of experience, 24.1% have 6–10 years of experience, 20.6% have 11–20 years of experience and 35.6% have more than 20 years of experience.Texas Education Agency

- 1. select AEIS report. 2. select HTML or PDF 3. select Campus Number 4. Enter school number "057905039" and select "Continue." Retrieved on 8 April 2008.

Curriculum

The School for the Talented and Gifted requires the Advanced High School Program as described by the

Texas Education Agency The Texas Education Agency (TEA) is the branch of the government of Texas responsible for public education in Texas in the United States.

(TEA) – this program is entitled the Distinguished Achievement Program (DAP), and it is the highest graduation program for

. The school then takes that program and makes it more demanding by including the Pre-AP and AP curriculum.

English curriculum

A typical TAG student takes English 1 Pre-AP as a freshman, English 2 Pre-AP as a sophomore,

AP English Language and Composition Advanced Placement (AP) English Language and Composition (also known as AP English Language, APENG, or AP Lang) is a course and examination offered by the College Board as part of the Advanced Placement Program. When AP exams were first impleme ...

as a junior, and

AP English Literature and Composition Advanced Placement (AP) English Literature and Composition (also known as Senior AP English, AP Lit, APENG, or AP English IV) is a course and examination offered by the College Board as part of the Advanced Placement Program in the United Stat ...

as a senior. The Texas Education Agency mandated that all TAG students in Texas must submit an “Exit-Level Project” during their senior year. This project requires finding a mentor in the community, researching and developing the project, and submitting the finished project to a set of judges at the state level. The projects are graded on a “1” to “5” scale, with “5” being the highest. The student must score a “3” or higher to graduate with a “TAG” endorsement on their diploma. TAG's Independent Study English course is this exit-level project. In addition to the required courses, students have choices of the following electives: Debate and Humanities (World Studies/Philosophy). Since there is a selection process used to gain admission to the TAG Magnet; and, since one of the definitions of a TAG student is a national-norm reading score of “80” or higher, the school does not have students who read below grade level. However, since TAG requires an AP course (

AP Human Geography Advanced Placement (AP) Human Geography (also known as AP Human Geo, AP Geography, APHG, AP HuGe, AP HuG, AP Human, or HGAP) is an Advanced Placement social studies course in human geography for high school students in the US, culminating in an e ...

) as freshman, the school does have students who do not read well enough to tackle a college-level course in their first year of high school. These students are referred to the Student Support Team (SST) for review. This leads to a parent-teacher-student conference attended by both the counselor and the principal. Parent, student, and teacher agree to work together as they check on progress achieved through tutoring before and after school. In some cases, additional projects are assigned to improve reading skills.

Math curriculum

Because the TAG admissions process is selective- one of the definitions of a TAG student is a national-norm math score of “82” or higher- a TAG student enters the school having already taken

Algebra Algebra () is one of the broad areas of mathematics. Roughly speaking, algebra is the study of mathematical symbols and the rules for manipulating these symbols in formulas; it is a unifying thread of almost all of mathematics. Elementary ...

. Typically, the majority of the class takes Geometry their freshman year. As an effect, students take Algebra 2 Pre-AP as sophomores, Pre-Calculus and

AP Statistics Advanced Placement (AP) Statistics (also known as AP Stats) is a college-level high school statistics course offered in the United States through the College Board's Advanced Placement program. This course is equivalent to a one semester, non-ca ...

as juniors, and AP Calculus AB as seniors. Students who enter the school without Algebra I credits will take both Algebra I and Geometry Pre-AP as freshman and then follow the aforementioned track until their senior year. If a student who has had both Algebra I and Geometry in their 7th and 8th grade years begins their math curriculum at TAG with Algebra II, they continue on to take Pre-Calculus as a sophomore, AP Calculus AB and

as a junior, and

AP Calculus BC Advanced Placement (AP) Calculus (also known as AP Calc, Calc AB / Calc BC or simply AB / BC) is a set of two distinct Advanced Placement calculus courses and exams offered by the American nonprofit organization College Board. AP Calculus AB cover ...

as a senior. Other students choose to "fast track" their math courses taking Algebra 2 Pre-AP and Pre-Calculus Pre-AP as sophomores thus allowing them to take

as seniors. The school does allow those advanced students to do take an elective called independent study in math, which teaches

number theory Number theory (or arithmetic or higher arithmetic in older usage) is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers and integer-valued functions. German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855) said, "Mat ...

and

linear algebra Linear algebra is the branch of mathematics concerning linear equations such as: :a_1x_1+\cdots +a_nx_n=b, linear maps such as: :(x_1, \ldots, x_n) \mapsto a_1x_1+\cdots +a_nx_n, and their representations in vector spaces and through matrices ...

, as well as other topics they will encounter at the university level.

Awards

* TAG was ranked the #1 high school in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

in 2006 by ''

s Jay Mathews Challenge Index. Two students, Devan Earle and Chelsea Jones, appeared on the cover of the periodical. In 2007, TAG retained the #1 position, moved to #2 in 2008 and returned to #1 in 2009. It was once again #1 in 2010. * TAG is consistently rated the Best Public High School in Dallas by ''

D Magazine ''D Magazine'' is a monthly magazine covering Dallas–Fort Worth. It is headquartered in Downtown Dallas. ''D Magazine'' covers a range of topics including politics, business, food, fashion and lifestyle in the city of Dallas. The first ...

''. * ''

Texas Monthly ''Texas Monthly'' (stylized as ''TexasMonthly'') is a monthly American magazine headquartered in Downtown Austin, Texas. ''Texas Monthly'' was founded in 1973 by Michael R. Levy and has been published by Emmis Publishing, L.P. since 1998 and is ...

'' ranks TAG as one of the top 25 schools in Texas. * TAG is a NCLB Blue Ribbon School. * Rated "Exemplary" by the

Texas Education Agency The Texas Education Agency (TEA) is the branch of the government of Texas responsible for public education in Texas in the United States.

every year since the inception of the program. * Texas Business & Education Coalition Honor Roll Award in 2004, 2006, and 2007. *

University Interscholastic League The University Interscholastic League (UIL) is an organization that creates rules for and administers almost all athletic, musical, and academic contests for public primary and secondary schools in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the largest organi ...

(UIL) Champions for District 9-AAAAA in both 2004 and 2005. * TAG was ranked #14 among Gold Medal Schools and #3 among

magnet school In the U.S. education system, magnet schools are public schools with specialized courses or curricula. "Magnet" refers to how the schools draw students from across the normal boundaries defined by authorities (usually school boards) as school ...

s in '' U.S. News & World Report''s 2007 ranking of the best high schools in the United States.

Advanced Placement Awards

The following awards are from the

of the College Board. * Recognition for having the highest passing rates in the world for

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includi ...

and

Human Geography Human geography or anthropogeography is the branch of geography that studies spatial relationships between human communities, cultures, economies, and their interactions with the environment. It analyzes spatial interdependencies between social i ...

for 2004-05. * Ranked first in the state of Texas for overall passing rates as a school since 2001. * Two AP State Scholars were announced each year for each state, and TAG had both in 2002, one in 2004, one in 2005 and one in 2007. The State AP Scholar award was recently discontinued. * Named a “worldwide leader” for the participation and performance for

Art History Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

, Computer Science, and Human Geography tests for 2003–2004.

Student Awards

* In 2006, TAG had two National Merit Scholarship winners, one received the Achievement Scholarship for outstanding black students and the other received the National Merit $2,500 Scholarship. * In 2004, a TAG student won the statewide Tom Luce Advanced Placement Scholarship, a $5,000 award given once a year. * In 2002, a TAG student was awarded a National Merit Scholarship, the O'Donnell Foundation Merit Scholarship.

Faculty Awards

* In 2007, Robert G. Martin, computer science instructor, received the

Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American technology company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, that designs and manufactures semiconductors and various integrated circuits, which it sells to electronics designers and manufacturers globa ...

Foundation Innovations in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Teaching Award. * In 2008, Rebecca McGowan Jensen, Ph.D., physics and statistics instructor, received the Metroplex Technology Business Council's Tech Titan of the Future High School Level award.

Traditions

Integral to the TAG environment, traditions play a major role in school spirit. There are many traditions at the Talented and Gifted magnet, some are student traditions, such as Arts Week, ICAP, and Scrapbook, and some are school traditions such as TAG-IT, TREK, and TAG Forum.

Scrapbook

Scrapbook is a yearly tradition in which the senior class collectively pulls together a scrapbook of events throughout the year, and before graduation, publishes a copy for all the seniors and sells copies to any underclassman that wants one. The scrapbook is officially a collective publication of the members of the Senior Class and expresses their opinions and memories of the school. It is not officially sanctioned by the school.

''Inklings'' literary magazine

''Inklings'' is a monthly publication featuring student submissions of editorials, reviews, poetry, and general fiction stories. It is also TAG's only regularly published, school-affiliated magazine, following the regular publication of the ''TAG*Magazine'' in the 1990s.

TAG-IT, TREK, & TAG Forum

TAG-IT, TREK, & TAG Forum are three all-school interdisciplinary seminars. TAG TREK is three-day, off-campus curricular field trip. TAG-IT is two-day curricular exercise of special course offerings both on and off campus. TAG Forum is a one day of presentations from experts in various fields of interest for students.

Extracurricular activities

Academic Honor Societies

International Thespian Society, Mu Alpha Theta, National Honor Society, English National Honor Society, Spanish National Honor Society, and

Science National Honor Society Science National Honor Society is an academic nationwide honor society focused on science for high school students in the United States. The society was established in 2000 in Texas and has expanded to over 1733 schools in all 50 states. The Scien ...

UIL Competitions

Students at the TAG Magnet participate in numerous

(UIL) sponsored competitions including: Accounting, Calculator Applications, Computer Applications,

, Cross Examination Debate, Current Events and Issues, Editorial Writing, Extemporaneous Informative Speech, Extemporaneous Persuasive Speech, Feature Writing, Headline Writing, Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Literary Criticism, Mathematics, News Writing,

Number Sense In psychology, number sense is the term used for the hypothesis that some animals, particularly humans, have a biologically determined ability that allows them to represent and manipulate large numerical quantities. The term was popularized by Sta ...

, One-Act Play, Poetry Interpretation, Prose Interpretation, Ready Writing,

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

, Social Studies, Solo and Ensemble (Band, Choir, and Orchestra), Spelling and Vocabulary.

Clubs and organizations

The TAG Magnet also has several student and school run clubs and organizations including:

Academic Decathlon The Academic Decathlon (also called AcDec, AcaDeca or AcaDec) is an annual high school academic competition organized by the non-profit United States Academic Decathlon (USAD). The competition consists of seven objective multiple choice tests, tw ...

, Destination Imagination, Math Olympiads,

Mock Trial A mock trial is an act or imitation trial. It is similar to a moot court, but mock trials simulate lower-court trials, while moot court simulates appellate court hearings. Attorneys preparing for a real trial might use a mock trial consisti ...

, Robotics, Science Fair, Quiz Bowl, Ballet Folklorico, Chess Club, Cross-Country Club, Dallas Association of Minority Engineers (DAME), Gay and Straight Alliance (GASP), German Dance,

Junior State of America The Junior State of America (formerly the Junior Statesmen of America), abbreviated JSA, is an American non-partisan youth organization. The purpose of JSA is to help high school students acquire leadership skills and the knowledge necessary to ...

(JSA), Pan-American Student Forum (PASF), Student Council, Students Against Global Abuse (SAGA), Texas Area Model of American States (TAMOAS), Texas Association of Future Educators (TAFE), Youth for Global Improvement (YGI).

References

External links

School for the Talented & Gifted HomepageDISD Web Page for TAGGreat Schools Web Page for TAG
{{DEFAULTSORT:School For The Talented and Gifted Dallas Independent School District high schools Public high schools in Dallas Public magnet schools in Dallas Educational institutions established in 1982 1982 establishments in Texas