SEM History

The School of Science and Engineering was created in 1982 as part of a federal court desegregation solution to increase the number of under-represented minorities in the career fields of professional science and engineering.

Nationally, employers and colleges were also clamoring to find qualified minority students and degreed professionals in these areas.  The Science and Engineering Magnet has responded by creating one of the most comprehensive college preparatory public high schools in the nation.  We are NUMBER ONE in the nation with the number of minority students passing the AP Calculus test and obtaining college credit for it.

We currently have students of all ethnicities in prestigious universities like MIT, Stanford, Rice, the University of Texas at Dallas, Austin, Arlington and University of Texas A&M.

We have been a Texas Exemplary School for nine straight years. We are recognized as a College Board Advanced Placement World Leader School.

In 1995 we moved to the newly constructed Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Magnet Center. This is a wonderful new facility with six magnet high schools in one building. They include:

  • Science and Engineering,
  • Talented and Gifted,
  • Health Professions,
  • Business and Management,
  • Judge Barefoot Sanders School of Government,
  • Law and Law Enforcement, and the
  • Rosie Sorrells Education and Social Services Magnet. 

The teaching staff at SEM share a common goal of preparing our students for the rigorous demands that today’s colleges of science and engineering place on students. Our faculty includes a number of exceptional teachers with over 75 percent having advanced degrees in the areas they teach.

We are a 2005 & 2011 National Blue Ribbon Award School!  We are ranked #1 by Newsweek Magazine (June 2011) and #1 by the Washington Post  (May 2011) as the best public high school in the United States.

Our Principals:
1982 (inception) to October 2007 -  Richard White
December 2007 – July 2012 - Jovan Carisa Wells
August 2012 - October 2017 - Tiffany Huit