5 at Impoverished School in El Paso Gain Entry to MIT : The university says they make up the largest single group of Latinos ever offered admission from regular U.S. high school.

The principal calls it “the coup of the century.”

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology says it is a record.

And a teacher who gets much of the credit says modestly that “their parents give them the direction and care about them . . . . I provide them with an opportunity to display their wares.”

The accomplishment that everyone here is talking about is a college admissions milestone: Five seniors at Ysleta High School, where most of the students are poor and 95% are Latino, have won entrance to prestigious MIT in Cambridge, Mass.

MIT, which offers admission to about 1,000 students a year from the United States and abroad, says the Ysleta High group constitutes the largest group of Latinos ever to be offered entrance from a single graduating class in a general attendance high school in the United States.

Although as many as five students in one class from private and specialized public schools have been offered admission, said Joe Jasso, assistant director of admissions at MIT, it is virtually unheard of for five students to be admitted to MIT from one class in any general attendance high school.

“Two is unusual from a regular high school,” he said.

Affirmative action played no role in the selection, Jasso said. Tony Marquez, a local educational consultant who played a key role in selecting the students, said those earning admission are chosen from about 7,000 applicants each year. Of the 1,000 selected, about 600 accept the offers, he said.

Housed in a decaying structure built more than 60 years ago, Ysleta High is short of scientific equipment, computers and other expensive educational adjuncts, Principal Roger Parks said.

He said the school district ranks among the most impoverished in the state, and Marquez said none of the families of the winners could afford to send their children away to college without financial help. Aid is not part of the admissions process, but Parks expects some assistance to be available.

“We are part of a community that has drugs, violence and gangs,” Parks said. “We have our share of students who scorn intellectual achievement. Our dropout rate is as high as any in this area.”

Ysleta High, however, has something else, he said. “Call it a personality, a soul. We care about kids. The school is more than this ratty old building.”

The five students who won admission to MIT are Enrique Arzaga, 17; Alicia Ayala, 18; Jesus A. Martinez, 16; Liliana Ramirez, 17, and David Villarreal, 18.

Ayala is valedictorian of the graduating class; Villarreal is salutatorian. Until two years ago, Ramirez could not speak English. Martinez, who skipped two grades in his early schooling, works part time as a janitor. When the school held a reception honoring the students for winning admission to MIT, Martinez had to work until 2 a.m. to make up for time he spent at the party.

Except for Martinez, whose father died eight years ago, the students have both parents living at home. Ramirez’s parents do not speak English, but they attend school functions regularly with a translator.

Each of the students plans a scientific or technical career--Arzaga in computer science, Ayala in metallurgical engineering, Martinez in computer engineering, Ramirez in architecture, and Villarreal in electrical engineering.

Arzaga said: “I think (Ysleta High) has a strong academic program. They teach you competitiveness and how to study harder.”

Ysleta High has flirted with this kind of success before, Parks said.

“Our valedictorian last year, an immigrant, went to Harvard, and the salutatorian went to MIT,” he said. Other graduates have attended Harvard, Amherst, Vassar, USC and Yale, he said.

Each of this year’s MIT contingent is a student of Paul Cain, a teacher of computer mathematics. Cain, who calls himself a catalyst for bright students, credits strong parental support for the students’ academic success.

The parents “push them to become achievers,” said Cain, and “you can’t help but fall in love with them and wish the best for them. They are winners. When they wake up in the morning, they are winners.”