Just west of Clark's campus on Freeland Street is the University Park Campus School (UPCS), a neighborhood school for 7th to 12th graders created through the University Park Partnership in 1997. The flagship school was founded with the mission to provide neighborhood children with the highest quality education possible. To help meet that goal as well as strengthen the relationship between the University and the neighborhood, Clark offers UPCS students and other neighborhood area public-school students who excel at their studies and meet the University's admissions requirements, attendance at Clark for four years tuition free.
Together, UPCS, Clark's Jacob Hiatt Center for Urban Education, and the Worcester Education Partnership work in close collaboration to:
UPCS has been recognized as a national model by the Education Trust, the Alliance for Excellent Education, and Newsweek Magazine. All members of its first three graduating classes have gone on to college, each a first-generation college attendee -- an accomplishment that is all the more remarkable given the low academic skills and limited English proficiency of its entering students. The vast majority enter at least two grade levels behind in reading and math; three-quarters of the students qualify for free lunch; two-thirds come from homes where English is not spoken. Today, UPCS attracts so many children from the neighborhood that it has a waiting list.