University Park Campus School

The power to change lives.

A little more than a decade ago, Clark University teamed with public school officials and launched the University Park Campus School (UPCS) with the bold mission: to demolish entrenched habits and presumptions standing in the way of local students' academic success. UPCS, a grades 7-12 school, allocated time and resources wisely, and demanded nothing less than the highest level of achievement on the part of its students. Clark faculty members worked with teachers to develop a rigorous college preparatory program and a streamlined curriculum, and Clark's fifth-year master's students taught full-time in UPCS classrooms.

Today, the experiment is reaping exceptional results. All students have passed the state's MCAS graduation exam on the first try; dropout rates are virtually nonexistent; and nearly all of UPCS' graduates have gone on to college.

The program, lauded as one of the most successful and innovative in the country, has been recognized as a national model by the Education Trust, the Alliance for Excellent Education, and Newsweek magazine. As schools across the nation emulate the program, the collaboration between Clark and the Worcester Schools carries reverberations that reach far beyond the community in which it resides.

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