All-Girls STEM Middle School in Austin: Why The Texas Girls School Is a Proud Member of the Young Women’s Preparatory Network

The Texas Girls School (TTGS) is Austin’s tuition-free, all-girls STEM middle school — and a proud member school of the Young Women’s Preparatory Network (YWPN), the largest network of all-girls, public, college-preparatory schools in the nation. That means when your daughter walks through our doors in Northwest Austin, she’s not just starting at a new STEM middle school. She’s joining a statewide track record of girls who out-graduate the national average, earn tens of millions in college scholarships every year, and go on to break generational cycles of limited opportunity. Here’s what that membership actually means for your family.

What Is the Young Women’s Preparatory Network?

If you’re researching all-girls or STEM middle schools in Austin, you’ve probably come across a lot of promises. YWPN is one of the few networks in Texas with the results to back them up.

YWPN is a nonprofit that partners with public schools across Texas to run all-girls, college-preparatory campuses serving grades 6 through 12. It started in 2004 with a single school in Dallas — Irma Lerma Rangel Young Women’s Leadership School, the first all-girls public school in Texas — and has since grown into a statewide network of campuses built around one goal: giving young women, especially in underserved communities, a clear and supported path to and through college.

The model works. Girls in single-gender, STEM-forward classrooms speak up more, take more academic risks, and graduate at rates that consistently outpace national benchmarks for their peers — a pattern echoed well beyond Texas. National research compiled by the International Coalition of Girls’ Schools has found that girls’-school students and graduates consistently report higher self-confidence, deeper academic engagement, and greater leadership involvement than their peers in coed classrooms. It’s part of why we believe so strongly in the model ourselves — you can read more about our own thinking on our Why an All-Girls School page.

Why Does It Matter That TTGS Is a YWPN Member School?

Any school can say it prepares girls for the future. Network membership means TTGS is held to — and supported by — a standard that’s already been proven across Texas. As a YWPN member school, TTGS shares in:

• A college-preparatory model built specifically around how girls learn best, refined over two decades across multiple Texas school districts
• Access to a statewide community of educators, alumnae, and best practices — not just a single campus figuring it out alone
• A shared mission: developing confident, capable young women equipped to lead, in STEM fields and beyond

For a family evaluating middle school options, that’s the difference between a new school with a good pitch and a new school backed by a network with a two-decade track record. Read more about our own approach on our Mission & Vision page.

What Has the YWPN Network Actually Achieved?

Numbers matter when you’re trusting a school with your daughter’s next several years. Across the YWPN network:

• College graduation rates run nearly three times the national average for students from low-income schools
• YWPN seniors earned $145 million in merit scholarships in a single graduating class (2025)
• 51% of YWPN students are first-generation college students — meaning the network doesn’t just serve girls who were already headed to college, it opens that door for the first time in many families
• YWPN schools rank in the top 12% of all schools in Texas

These aren’t TTGS’s numbers alone — they’re the numbers of the network TTGS belongs to, and they’re exactly why the network’s approach is worth paying attention to as you compare middle schools in the Austin area for your daughter. It’s part of the same story behind TTGS’s own first-year results: TTGS earned a 92/100 “A” rating from the Texas Education Agency in its very first year of operation.

What Does This Mean for My Daughter at TTGS?

Practically, it means your daughter gets the best of both: a hands-on, project-based STEM education close to home in Northwest Austin, inside a small, focused, all-girls learning environment — plus the credibility, resources, and proven college-prep model of a statewide network built for exactly this purpose.

It also means she becomes part of something bigger than one campus. The plaid skirt she wears at TTGS is the same tradition worn by YWPN students across Texas — a small but real symbol of a shared community of girls all working toward the same thing: college, leadership, and the confidence to get there. And because TTGS is a tuition-free, open-enrollment public charter school, that community is open to any family in the Austin area, regardless of zip code or ability to pay.

TTGS also sits inside a broader Austin community working to expand STEM access for girls, alongside organizations like Girlstart, the Austin-based nonprofit dedicated to girls in STEM — one more sign that this is a moment, and a place, built for exactly this kind of school.

Hear From the Network Itself

YWPN has told its story through the voices of its own students and alumnae. You can see more from the network on its YouTube channel, where you’ll find student stories and a look at what the network has built across Texas.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is The Texas Girls School part of a larger network, or is it a standalone school? TTGS is a member school of the Young Women’s Preparatory Network, a statewide network of all-girls, public, college-preparatory schools. It’s also a tuition-free, open-enrollment public charter school, so admission doesn’t depend on where you live or your ability to pay.

What grades does TTGS serve? TTGS currently serves grades 6 through 8 in Northwest Austin, with plans to expand. See our full Campus & Location details.

Is TTGS a good fit for a girl who’s strong in math and science? TTGS is built specifically for that — but your daughter doesn’t have to already be a “STEM kid” to belong here. The school’s academic model centers on hands-on, standards-aligned STEM instruction — math, science, literacy, and technology — in small classes designed for personalized attention, and many of our students are just as drawn to the creative, hands-on, and collaborative side of that work as they are to the numbers. TTGS is a great fit for a wide range of girls, whether she’s already confident in math and science or discovering that side of herself for the first time.

How is an all-girls school different from a co-ed middle school? Research consistently shows girls in single-gender classrooms participate more, take more academic risks, and build more confidence voicing their ideas — a big part of why the YWPN model has produced the outcomes it has across Texas. We go deeper on this on our Why an All-Girls School page.

How do I find out if TTGS is right for my daughter? The best way to know is to see it in person. Prospective families are welcome to schedule an in-person campus tour, and prospective students can arrange to shadow a current TTGS student for a day to experience campus life firsthand. TTGS also accepts transfers on a rolling basis through the end of October each year, so there’s still time to apply even if the school year has already started. Learn more on the For Parents and For Students pages.

See TTGS for Yourself

Numbers and network affiliations can only tell you so much. If you’re weighing middle school options for your 4th or 5th grader, we’d love to show you what a YWPN member school looks like in Northwest Austin. Schedule a campus tour and see the classrooms, meet the teachers, and find out firsthand why families are choosing TTGS.