University Preparatory Academy Charter School

Teaching staff is first rate. Very flexible and willing to support their students. Agree with other reviews about poor office staffing and difficulty getting through to someone during/after school hours-which is bad in emergency situations as we found. Teachers do not have phones in their classrooms, sometimes you cannot find your child. Also agree with other reviews that the Principal does not follow through on promises. Another negative, there is rarely time to access technology labs after school hours so students can progress on their work. Unfortunately, there is very poor parent participation with the number of families who attend, primarily the same volunteers show up, and very low numbers join PTSO for minimal dollar amount, which is just sad.
--Submitted by a parent

This will be my fourth year going into UPA, I am going into the 10th grade. While in the beginning I felt that the school lacked in sports, organization and communication, it had become better and better over the years. While there have been times where the school slips up, its very normal like with any regular school. There are some things that could improve about the school, it is hard to do so with the limitations and lack of resources that are available to them. -Priya M.

UPA have just posted their Academic Performance Index (API) score of 859...this one of the highest UPI score here in the Santa Clara county and they can certainly be proud to be a member of high performance schools that are located in Palo Alto and Cupertino area. UPA is a young school (less than 4 years old) but they're already showing their potential to be one of great school here in San Jose and Santa Clara county. CONGRATULATIONS UPA!!!
--Submitted by a parent

I have been at this school since the first year it has opened. I am currently a junior and I like UPA. It has a small class atmosphere which helps students receive the attention they need from teachers. Small school=Better learning, Big school=Bigger drama, less individualism. This is a school that challenges your skills and definitely prepares you for College! Congrats UPA for your API of 859! -Alec G.

The initial meeting was great, all of the talk from all the staff was great but NO follow through. I have spoken to 2 other parents who have removed their children from this school. Sounds good in theory to have a small charter school, smaller classrooms, but the support from front office staff is non existent.
--Submitted by a parent

Lots of promises with no or little delivery. We've been extremely disappointed with the way the administration addresses and handles problems. UPA sounds good on paper and administration are good at talking in circles without actually addressing parent/student concerns.
--Submitted by a parent

UPA has great academic and curriculm and a small enviroment school.
--Submitted by a parent

My son did 7th and is now in 8th. He is having fun and doing well in academics. I hear there have been a couple of teachers who are not able to control classrooms, but most teachers are excellent and doing a great job. UPA started sports and gym in 2009, so now it's an excellent choice.
--Submitted by a parent

We are very pleased with the progress and growth my son made in his 7th and 8th grades in 2008-2010. He has been a honor roll student for several years and he continued to shine at UPA with enough challenging coursework. Our neighborhood public school does not provide so much of personalization of coursework. My son also gained a lot of confidence and leadership skills with participation in several co-curricular activities (music, arts, avid, basketball, PE, tech, etc). We never knew that he had any interest in arts and drawing, but this school (thanks to Ms Crump) helped him discover his own talent and now he has become passionate about painting and arts producing superb work to our pleasant surprise. Thank you UPA!
--Submitted by a parent

UPA is an excellent school, probably the best I've been to so far. It provides a good academic environment, and a good social environment too. I skipped 6th grade and went straight to 7th here, and even though I was younger than most of the students, i did well in this school.
--Submitted by a student