UPchieve
Last Revised: December 17, 2025
- Issue Areas
- K-12 education
- Outcomes
- High school graduation
Program overview
Providing free, on-demand virtual tutoring for Title I students: UPchieve offers free, on-demand, one-on-one online tutoring to students in grades 8-12 who are low income or attend a Title I school. UPchieve aims to close gaps in academic achievement and college enrollment between low- and high-income students by providing support in math, English, science, social studies, college counseling, and SAT exam preparation.
Accessible online tutoring for out of school time: UPchieve tutoring is intended to help students with homework, class content, or the college process during out of school time. Students either join UPchieve as individual students looking for extra help or are part of a partner school or district that incorporates UPchieve’s tutoring into homework assignments.
Partnering with schools and districts: UPchieve partners with individual schools or school districts. In partner schools or districts, all students have access to UPchieve and teachers can assign homework or quizzes. Teachers can also assign tutoring to students who need extra help. To facilitate the partnership with schools and districts, UPchieve offers professional development sessions to help educators learn how UPchieve can supplement classroom instruction and how to increase student usage. UPchieve provides usage reports and data insights for educators to help students in the classroom and inform curriculum design.
Deploying a trained, high quality volunteer tutor force: Serving students at scale and on-demand requires a large workforce of volunteer tutors. UPchieve ensures tutors are high quality by providing an introductory tutoring course and requiring tutors to pass an assessment in the subject area they intend to tutor in. Tutoring training is sensitive to the low income and minority population UPchieve serves by including content on cultural responsiveness and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Additionally, students rate tutors post-session. Poor feedback prompts an UPchieve staff member to check in with the tutor and provide constructive feedback.
Integrating college counseling into online tutoring: UPchieve covers traditional academic tutoring like English and math, but college counseling helps make UPchieve a one-stop-shop for high schoolers. Students receive personalized support on all aspects of the college process including researching colleges, essay help, and SAT prep. This makes college counseling more accessible to students in Title I schools who often have lower college enrollment rates.
One study with a rigorous design provides some evidence for UPchieve as a tool for improving math achievement.
- A 2023 randomized controlled trial of students in grades 9 and 10 found that when students were incentivized to use UPchieve, they scored 9 percentile points higher on the STAR math test relative to the control group. Students who were incentivized to participate in the program engaged in 1.6 hours more tutoring than students in a control group over a 14-week period.
Implementation supports for school partnerships: UPchieve offers several supports to integrate its tutoring service into school districts and align with classroom instruction. UPchieve provides professional development sessions for teachers to better understand how UPchieve can support instruction and be incorporated into curricula. In 2024, UPchieve also launched a “classroom” feature which allows teachers in partner schools to assign tutoring, create short assignments, and to monitor student progress. UPchieve also produces promotional materials in English and Spanish to explain how a school is using UPchieve to both educators and families.
Collecting data to support schools and platform improvement: UPchieve gathers data on student tutoring topics, session length and frequency, as well as feedback on tutors to enhance its user experience and tutor training. For students connected with partner schools, these usage statistics are provided to school administrators and teachers to aid classroom instruction. Educators can use UPchieve’s student data to track progress and pinpoint areas for improvement. Schools can offer training to help teachers incorporate UPchieve student data into formative assessments.
Incentivizing repeated usage leads to academic achievement: UPchieve piloted a program in the 2021-22 school year where students were incentivized to participate in UPchieve tutoring sessions weekly, with students receiving $5 for each week in which they completed at least one math tutoring session. Students who were incentivized to participate used UPchieve more, and increased tutoring uptake led to 9 percentile points higher on the STAR math test relative to the control group. Additional tutoring sessions were also associated with improvements in their motivation, confidence, and engagement with math.