The Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education is considering closing Dorchester Collegiate Academy Charter School, a facility with historically poor academic achievement that was placed on probation two years ago.

In a memorandum released last week, Mitchell Chester, the state commissioner of elementary and secondary education, said that he made the recommendation based on “lackluster academic success” and inadequate improvement since the probation.

“I expect the school to be delivering a robust program of study,” Chester wrote. “Unfortunately, this is far from the case.”

School officials expressed disappointment over the recommendation in a statement last week. Several, including headmaster Bob Flynn, attended the board’s meeting on Dec. 15 to speak in favor of keeping the school open.

“We recognize we have important areas to continue to improve upon and are relentlessly focused on improvement in order to provide the best possible education for our students,” the statement read.

The move by the board is a rare one: Since the inception of charter schools 20 years ago, it has voted to remove the licenses of 12 charter schools. In his memorandum, Chester wrote that the majority of those were for reasons of underperformance.

“Massachusetts charter schools are held to a high standard of academic performance and must demonstrate the right to operate or face closure,” he wrote.

Housed on Hancock Street near Kane Square, Dorchester Collegiate opened in 2009 and holds classes from the 4th to the 8th grade. As of Oct. 1, the school had an enrollment of 203, most of them students of color.

According to the Department of Education, Dorchester Collegiate’s student population is 73 percent African-American, 26 percent Hispanic, and 1 percent white. About 29 percent are English language learners and 27.5 percent are students with disabilities.

In its statement, Dorchester Collegiate said the school caters to students who may not perform best in standard academic environments. In this academic year, the school said, over 45 percent of the students require therapeutic counseling, with 16 percent needing intensive therapeutic counseling three or more times per week.

Last year, the school petitioned the board for a reduction in grade span from grades 4-12 to grades 4-8, which was granted. In addition, the board reviewed the institution’s charter and placed the school on probation.

Most of the probation conditions were met, Chester wrote, but notable failings were found in academic improvement. Dorchester Collegiate needed to make substantial progress, particularly in the areas of math and English language arts.

The school’s MCAS scores have remained persistently low since the probation, though there was a small measure of improvement. More than half of the students scored below proficient on 2015 MCAS tests in science, math, and English language arts.

Chester also noted the school’s attrition rates are among the highest of public schools, including charter and district schools. The rate for the 2014-2015 school year was 30.2 percent, according to the state.  “Over the course of the school’s history... with a few exceptions, [Dorchester Collegiate] has been the lowest performing charter school in Boston,” Chester wrote.

Dorchester Collegiate is distinct from the Dorchester-based Boston Collegiate Charter School. The board will vote on the closure of Dorchester Collegiate at its Jan. 26 meeting and, if the recommendation is accepted, it will be shuttered in June.