Research & Insights / UP Academy Dorchester: A 2026 School on the Move Semifinalist

UP Academy Dorchester: A 2026 School on the Move Semifinalist

The ten semifinalists for the 2026 School on the Move Prize are excellent examples of the conditions of sustainable school improvement EdVestors’ research has identified. Please join us at the Prize Ceremony on November 10th!

UP Academy Dorchester (UAD) is a BPS Horace Mann charter school serving 640 students in grades K1–8 in the Bowdoin-Geneva community of Dorchester. 99% of UAD’s students are students of color, 93% are high-needs students, 40% are English Learners, and 54% have a home language other than English. Five years ago, UAD was a struggling school, but its investment in core strategies, including systems-building, cultivating a values-driven culture, and offering joyful, immersive learning experiences, drove the school’s improvement efforts.

UAD has focused on developing, refining, and consistently applying systems to drive academic rigor and build a culture of achievement within the school. UAD designed a schoolwide framework for staff to plan, provide feedback, and execute on instructional goals, anchored in a few key routines. Weekly data meetings, routine intellectual preparation, and a refined Multi-Tiered System of Supports help ensure that all classrooms deliver high-quality, grade-level instruction. These systems have paid off: on the 2025 MCAS, UP’s student growth percentile (SGP) was 62 in ELA and 57 in math—outperforming most peer schools serving similar high-needs populations in ELA and exceeding the BPS average for schools with 85%+ high needs students in math.

Second, UAD has focused on building a values-aligned culture for students and adults. The school collaboratively defined TIGER values: Teamwork, Integrity, Growth, Engagement, and Resilience, and embedded them into daily routines, classroom expectations, and professional development. The school community also built a shared culture of mutual accountability and celebration, which they credit for staff-reported improvements in sense of connection and student-staff relationships. Staff retention increased to 89% for SY25–26, up from 66% in SY19–20, and chronic absenteeism rates have decreased from 33% in 2022 to 15.5% in 2026.

Finally, UAD has focused on developing joyful, immersive, and experiential learning experiences that connect students to STEM and career pathways through the school’s Imagine Your Future program. The program connects each grade to a structured sequence of STEM- and career-connected learning experiences, each designed with both academic rigor and personal relevance. In 2025–26, students engaged with partners including WHOOP, Dell, Toast, PTC, American Tower, Rapid7, Kraft Analytics Group, and Suffolk Construction across industries from robotics and logistics to data science, construction, and broadcasting. As UAD has focused on providing more immersive STEM learning experiences, more 5th and 8th-graders are meeting expectations in science. While these gains are driven by multiple factors, the engagement, curiosity, and confidence students build through Imagine Your Future are contributing to a culture where science feels real and worth learning.