An all-girls Dallas middle school will add high school grades with the help of a $2 million gift.

This year, the Young Women’s STEAM Academy in Balch Springs added the ninth grade. The Texas Instruments Foundation grant will help the academy add a new grade per year through the 12th grade by the 2027-28 school year, when it will have the first graduating class.

“It’s not an expense. It’s an investment in you,” Dallas ISD Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde told academy students when the gift was announced Wednesday morning.

The academy, which opened in 2016, has about 760 students.

It now joins the Young Women’s Preparatory Network that partners with districts for all-girls schools. DISD also has the Irma Lerma Rangel Young Women’s Leadership School, which serves sixth through 12th graders and is part of the network.

“It’s never been about achievement gaps in our schools. It’s always been about opportunity gaps,” Elizalde said. “What the Young Women’s Preparatory Network does for you, for us, is provide those opportunities.”

The network also has schools in Fort Worth, Austin, Houston and other Texas cities, serving more than 5,000 students.

“Over the last 20 years, 100% of our girls have graduated from high school, and 100% have been accepted to college,” said Lynn McBee, the network’s CEO. “Our girls get through college and graduate from college at about 69%, which is double the national average of girls who come from backgrounds that are underserved.”

Research shows many benefits for girls who attend school in all-girls classrooms, McBee said. Instead of taking notes, they lead meetings, she added.

“They become leaders,” she said. “They raise their hands. They answer questions. They’re not shy.”

Only about 25% of STEM jobs, or those based in science, technology, engineering or math, are filled by women, said Andy Smith, Executive Director of the Texas Instruments Foundation.

“We know that there’s a STEM confidence gap in girls versus boys. And girls, historically, have a higher level of math anxiety than boys,” Smith said.

One way to close that gap is by “ensuring that girls have every opportunity to explore their interests and gain that confidence, including in a supportive, all-girls environment,” he said.

The grant allows the school to expand while focusing on recruitment and training of science teachers, Smith said. It will also fund important resources that help students prepare for college.

Most of the school’s students will be the first in their families to attend college, academy principal Rubinna Sanchez said. A first-generation college student herself, Sanchez said that kind of support is something she didn’t have but would have made her journey “a lot smoother.”

“We’re going to be able to have a college success advisor, specifically for our girls, to guide them, to find the best scholarships, the best colleges that fit them,” Sanchez said.

The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.

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