The Up Academy Holland School will exit state receivership next year, ending more than 10 years of state control over the Dorchester school.
Pedro Martinez, the commissioner of the state’s Department Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), announced the decision on Dec. 16 during a meeting of the state board that voted on the matter.
He noted that support from the Up Education Network would remain in place as the school transitions back to Boston Public School (BPS) control.
“Before this exit is finalized, under my authority as commissioner, my team will be working with the superintendent to develop a plan called ‘exit assurances,’” Martinez said.
Up Education Network CEO Hillary Casson told meeting members that “today is a true celebration. It’s a powerful example of what’s possible when DESE, Boston Public Schools, the Boston Teachers Union, and a partner like Up Education Network work together with a shared responsibility and purpose grounded in what’s best for students and the community.”
Under the plan, Martinez said, the school will maintain a degree of autonomy from the district, which “will monitor the exit assurances in relation to a set of academic milestones and benchmarks.”
The Holland reached Level 5 status on the state’s school accountability ranking system in 2014, with students there scoring in the lowest percentile on the state’s MCAS exam, triggering a state takeover. Under receivership, the school was placed under the control of Up Education Network, which then had the authority to make changes to the school’s hours, union contracts, and curriculum.
The receivership model came to the fore in Massachusetts as the education reform movement was at its peak in the early 2000s. In 2011, the Lawrence public school district became the first to be placed in receivership, followed by systems in Holyoke and Southbridge. Additionally, four individual schools, including the Holland, were placed under receivership and a cohort of Springfield schools was placed in a so-called “empowerment zone,” a status similar to receivership where schools were taken from the control of the district and run by private operators.
Founded in 2010, Up Education Network sought to work with the lowest-performing schools in Massachusetts. By 2016, the organization was operating five takeover schools in Boston and Lawrence. When it exits the Holland, Up Academy Dorchester will be the only school still under the non-profit’s control.
By 2020, when DESE was considering placing the Boston Public Schools under receivership, many in Massachusetts were questioning the efficacy of the practice. By then, Lawrence had been in receivership for eight years and students there still scored in the lowest percentile on the MCAS exam. Holyoke, Southbridge, and the Springfield Empowerment Zone similarly showed little progress, with students scoring in the lowest percentiles on the MCAS exam.
While the Holland School has made progress, with 28 percent of students rated as “meeting expectations” in math and 37 percent in English Language Arts, the Paul Dever School on Columbia Point, which went under receivership and cycled through several heads of school during two years of operation by a state-selected education startup, showed no progress. BPS this year announced that the Dever will close at the end of this school year.
Lawmakers, including state Sen. Liz Miranda and state Rep. Sam Montaño, are advancing a bill called the Thrive Act, which would end state takeovers of schools and school districts.
