University Park Campus School Mission Statement
University Park Campus School is a unique learning community, promising to accept students of all abilities from the neighborhood and prepare them for college. Every single student pursues a rigorous academic program consisting of all honors classes. At the same time, instruction is individualized to connect to each student’s particular level of development. There is no tracking. Instead, there are small classes, personal relationship-building with a caring and competent faculty, longer days, ninety-minute learning blocks, summer school, morning and evening homework sessions. Making connections is key, connecting prior knowledge to new in-depth learning, connecting instruction to assessment, connecting process to content, connecting the classroom to personal meaning, and connecting to one another affectively as well as cognitively. Students learn that diligence and commitment pay off. They also learn the power of moving toward independent learning.
University Park is an oasis of hope and opportunity within a rough inner-city neighborhood, home to a diverse group of economically challenged children motivated by the promise of success in a college preparatory program and of free tuition at Clark University. Students study in a building that is small, nurturing, intimate, and comfortable, but one that is inextricably connected to Clark University, a world-class university, having an intellectually rich and stimulating campus. Our students think of themselves as young Clark students as they compete on the University athletic complex, study at the University library, attend selected University events. University professors teach and university students learn to teach in our building, teaming with UPCS faculty. Our students enroll in college courses as juniors and seniors.
The goal of UPCS is to produce students who become confident in their ability to tackle new learning situations, who grow in an appreciation of community, who come to understand that desire beats adversity, and who learn to realize that people working together with a common cause can indeed make promises come true.
