University Preparatory Charter Academy, also known as "U-prep" or "UPREP", was a charter high school in the Oakland Unified School District, California. It was founded in 2001 by Isaac Haqq in the Eastmont Town Center. The school doubled in size from some 130 to 260 students in 2004. Haqq claimed "We have made it cool to be smart at this school".
A large portion of the student body were minorities including 78% African American, 15% Hispanic and the remainder scattered from there. UPREP was very successful in getting its students into top colleges and universities across the U.S. including University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University.
In 2007 the School District nullified the school's 2006 exam results threatened to revoke the school's charter after scandals involving alleged cheating by an adult student and alleged grade changes by teachers. The founder, Isaac Haqq, resigned from his directorship on July 12. At a board meeting to discuss the future of the school, parents praised the school's achievements and opposed its closure.
The governing board of UPREP voted to close the school in July 2007 after allegations of fraudulent attendance reporting (creating fraudulent collection of state funding estimated at $260,000). In addition the State Department of Education invalidated the school's test scores in 2006 and announced its intention to invalidate the results for 2007, in both cases because of cheating.
On August 2, 2007, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the school had been closed and the district was scrambling to find placement for its students.
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