Solar Preparatory School for Girls. Photo by Renee Umsted.
Solar Preparatory School for Girls is celebrating the 72 students of its inaugural graduating class.
The Dallas ISD single-gender school focusing on science, technology, engineering, the arts and math opened in 2016 at the old James B. Bonham Elementary campus on North Henderson Avenue. It now serves girls in pre-K up through eighth grade, with 50% of the students coming from families who live below the poverty line.
Of the 72, seven will attend neighborhood schools, while 65 graduates plan to attend programs or schools that required an application. Here is the breakdown of where the 65 students will go next year:
- Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts: 10 students
- Townview Talented and Gifted Academy: 5 students
- Townview Science and Engineering Magnet: 2 students
- Townview Law: 5 students
- Townview Health: 6 students
- Townview Education: 3 students
- Woodrow Wilson High School IB: 7 students
- IDEA High School: 5 students
- W. T. White Fine Arts Collegiate Academy: 3 students
- Emmett J. Conrad Global H-Tech: 5 students
- Kathlyn Joy Gilliam Collegiate Academy: 2 students
- Northlake Early College: 5 students
- Skyline High School Health Science Career Cluster: 2 students
- The Hockaday School: 1 student
- The Episcopal School of Dallas: 1 student
- Bishop Lynch High School: 3 students
Last year, Solar Prep received a “B” rating from the Texas Education Agency. In 2021, the school was ranked No. 6 among Dallas ISD elementary schools and No. 167 out of 102,452 elementary schools across Texas, according to U.S. News & World Report.
