Given the social and environmental implications of materials in today’s life, the substance model is present in all school chemistry curricula. Although there is an extensive body of literature on the learning processes of this model, most learning progressions have focused on a single dimension, providing partial views of how students appropriate key ideas and learn to apply them in new and challenging situations. In this paper we propose a multidimensional learning progression for the substance model, characterizing how key ideas, forms of reasoning, and representations of material systems are expected to progress. The learning progression, empirically refined from the productions of 343 students aged 13-18, is composed of six stages that constitute the expected trajectory of students from the objectivist to the interactionist stage. This learning progression can be used by both researchers and teachers to move towards more sophisticated visions of substances, which allow students to address the challenges that the exercise of citizenship demands in today’s society.