The young men in tuxedos defied all of the stereotypes — including the one about whether they can learn.

Coming from low-income homes in gang-infested parts of a poor city, they are going places you might not expect: St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute, Canisius, Cardinal O’Hara and similar top-shelf high schools.

All 25 graduates of the St. Augustine Campus of Nativity Miguel Middle School, in the Kensington-Bailey area, will attend private, Catholic or charter high schools this fall.

The boys — there’s a separate school for girls — weren’t always on that path.

One by one, the student speakers at the school’s graduation ceremony decribed the transformation they underwent in an atmosphere of discipline, long hours — even Saturdays — and caring on the part of nuns and lay teachers committed to students’ success.

Joshua Huffman talked about improving his manners, his sense of self-respect “and the way I dress and speak.” Ken Ngoopos learned to avoid street temptations and be “strong enough to walk away.” Jacob Crawl was converted from a kid “with a horrible temper and unpleasant attitude” into one who raised his GPA by 18 points.

What are the school’s secrets? There aren’t any. The formula — small classes, committed teachers, involved parents — is well-known.

“We have to keep classes small because one of the keys is that all of our teachers know all of our students very well,” school President Nancy Langer said.

Knowing your students also means knowing what they’re going through outside of school, such as what 14-year-old Jordan Williams went through last Halloween when a stray bullet pierced a Bickford Avenue home and lodged near the spine of his 13-year-old friend.

He stayed with the girl until the ambulance came. It was the type of trauma that can derail the best-laid plans.

“I overcame it, and I got my head back on track,” said Jordan, who’s on his way to St. Mary’s High School in Lancaster.

He credits St. Augustine with challenging him and putting him on “the right path,” unlike the charter school he previously attended.

“It was really just, ‘Teach ’em and get ’em out of here,’ ” Jordan says, contrasting that with the staff’s commitment at St. Augustine. “This is very different.”

That’s not by accident. “The main thing is the relationship

that’s developed between the student, the school and the families,” Langer said. “So it’s like a three-way partnership.”

But if you’re expecting a strong PTA, you’d be wrong. The school doesn’t have one because many parents work multiple jobs. Instead, it simply requires parents to be available and responsive and, conversely, to contact the school if they have a concern. Langer said parents are constantly in and out of the school.

St. Augustine is selective — which public schools can’t be — but not in the way you’d think. Applicants attend a summer school and overnight camp where the school assesses not test scores, but attitude and a desire to change.

It looks for kids “who don’t do well on state tests,” Langer said, and judges itself on which high schools they get into and how well they do. Last year, she said, 84 percent of alumni graduated from high school — a figure all the more impressive when considering St. Augustine’s demographic profile.

It’s what happens when teaching is a mission, not a job; when parents become educational partners; and when bureaucracy doesn’t get in the way of lengthening the school day or school week, or doing anything else that works.

Is it replicable in a large public school district? Maybe not.

But it does prove one thing: The kids are not the problem.

rwatson@buffnews.comnull