Uplift Education

Uplift Education is the largest public charter school network in North Texas, growing from 1 school in 1996 to 45 schools on 21 campuses in six cities across DFW, including Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Grand Prairie, Irving and DeSoto. Uplift serves 23,000 preK-12 students and are deliberately located in low-income urban neighborhoods to address the need for high-quality public school choice options for North Texas’ underserved communities. 80% of Uplift students participate in free and reduced lunch and 33% have limited English proficiency. Yet, Uplift has a proven formula for success, resulting in 100% of students being accepted to college for the past 20 years. Uplift students graduate college ready at a rate 13% higher than the state average and earn college degrees at 4x the rate of their peers. Uplift has a goal of 70% of our graduates receiving a college degree in six years and 90% of our graduates earning an economically viable post-secondary credential and entering a career path. Uplift works towards this goal through a data driven focus, supporting the health, safety, social and emotional well-being of our students and guiding them through college and careers, empowering students to reach their highest potential.

Our Needs

There are four primary ways to invest and make an impact for our students:

1. Road to College & Career: Uplift's college and career counselors provide individualized support, guidance and programs that allow our students to choose their best post-secondary pathway to achieve success whether they pursue college or matriculate directly into the workforce. Through the strategic efforts of the RTCC Program, Uplift students and alumni have earned impressive outcomes: 51% of Uplift scholars graduate from high school college-ready compared to 38% across the state; 100% of graduates have been accepted to college for the last 20 years; 78% are the first in their families to attend college; and 55% of alumni earn college degrees within 6 years (4x the national average for like peers).

2. Social & Emotional Learning: Our SEL programs are raising the bar in education. Licensed behavioral counselors on every campus, along with integrated daily SEL lessons, help create an environment of stability, inclusiveness, and safety for our students. 100% of our 45 schools have an SEL Lead who support student well-being, social-emotional learning, restorative practices, and character virtue literacy that is aligned with the International Baccalaureate learner profile.

3. Academics & School Enrichment Programs: Uplift's Whole Scholar Model is an approach that sees each learner as an individual with unique needs and nurtures their academics, college preparation, school communities and families. Through this model, Uplift has experienced a 30% increase in IB diplomas awarded and 6,600 college credit hours earned by the Class of 2022, which equals $1.9 million to offset the rising cost of college.

4. Capital: Uplift is the largest IB school district in the state of Texas and the second largest in the nation. Uplift has capital projects to ensure that our facilities have the capacity to serve families in communities across North Texas, uniquely providing academic and programmatic excellence at every Uplift school. These projects help create safe and quality school campuses that support the strategic expansion of our programs.