Parents and Partnerships
APP is Acera’s parent-led community support organization. Founded in 2016, we aim to celebrate, advocate for, and bring together all the members of the Acera community.
- Build community, make connections, and increase engagement
- Support and advocate for parents, guardians, teachers, and staff
- Advise and collaborate with Acera leadership
We have a special focus on events (social, educational, parents-only, family-oriented) and work closely with Acera to make those happen, but we strive to explore any method to strengthen our community and school, such as via our online forum. You’ll also see us helping to cheer on and lift up our amazing teachers and staff.
To learn more or to get involved, current families should log in to the Acera Community Forum.
Collaborations with leading area thinkers, entrepreneurs, and educational institutions are the heart of our model. As a lab school, Acera has the unique opportunity to research, try, and tweak new approaches to education. Acera curriculum partners and collaborators include the Social Development and Learning Lab at Boston University; MIT Media Lab; MIT Center for Microbiome Informatics and Therapeutics; Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO); Music & Neuroimaging Lab at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital; Arduino; and many more.
The Acera Parent Science Alliance is an Acera parent group of professionals who have deep training and experiences in diverse sciences fields, who volunteer throughout the school year to expand and deepen the knowledge base of students and teachers in ways that keep Acera learning current.
R&D Chemist IV
MAKScientific LLC
Software Engineer
General Atomics
Professor
Feinstein International Center
Co-founder and Data Scientist
DrivenData
Senior Scientist II-Preclinical
Team Lead
Generate Biomedicines
Principal Product Quality Leader
Amgen
Director of Translational Medicine – Global Health Novartis
Vice President
Patients Like Me
Adjunct Assistant Professor
Brown University School of Public Health
Research Scientist
MIT
Acera maintains a robust partnership with Tufts University CEEO (Center for Engineering Education Outreach). Faculty from Tufts regularly collaborate with Acera educators to pilot new technologies and learning experiences. Our Maker Space / Robotics Specialist regularly works with Tufts CEEO educators to bring new technology into Acera and co-invent new electives to pilot at Acera. Acera and AceraEI worked with Tufts CEEO to bring alive a one-day hands-on workshop for educators on how to leverage AI within schools and classrooms in April 2025. Tufts CEEO graduate students are regularly hired as Acera Enrichment staff to lead Lego Spike classes and more.
Acera also partners with Arduino, a global leader in microcontroller electronics. Arduino recently featured Acera in a global video campaign marking their 20th anniversary, spotlighting Acera’s role in piloting educational robotics. The school has been testing lesson plans, suggesting enrichments, and expanding on curriculum with younger students—far younger than the typical Arduino user base. Acera students are not just passive recipients; they provide valuable feedback that helps shape Arduino’s educational strategy. This relationship gives Acera access to exclusive tools and prototypes, further enriching its STEM curriculum.
These partnerships exemplify Acera’s identity as a lab school: a place where education is not just delivered but actively developed and tested in real-time.