Problems with American schools have been well-documented in recent years and while the U.S. education system as a whole may have its flaws in terms of cost, quality, and equality, many individual schools throughout our nation are thriving and doing great things with kids of future generations. Earlier this week, U.S. News released its Best High Schools national rankings and for the third year in a row, Dallas-based School for the Talented and Gifted (TAG) took top honors for being the #1 public high-school in the country.

Partnering up with American Institutes for Research in Washington D.C., U.S. News conducted their research to find the best American public schools based on three specific criteria: overall student performance on state-mandated assessments; how effectively schools educated their black, Hispanic and economically disadvantaged students; and participation in and performance on AP and IB exams to evaluate how well schools prepare students for college-level courses.

In all, 500 high schools around the country earned gold medals, 1,519 earned silver medals, and 2,688 earned bronze metals—but only 1 school could take home that number 1 ranking, and once again, there was no stopping TAG from taking home first place.

Students at the School for the Talented and Gifted are required to take 11 AP courses and also have the opportunity to partner with area universities to conduct field research during certain projects. In addition, minority students at TAG are actually the in the majority with nearly 60% of the student-body being black, Hispanic, or Asian. 30 percent of TAG students also qualify for free or reduced price lunch, which also helped its ranking in the economically disadvantaged category during U.S. News’ findings.

So, for the 3^rd time in 3 years, congratulations students, teachers, and faculty for being ranked the Best Public High School in America!