Equitable Practices

Year 2 of the School District of Springfield Township's Equity Action Plan has started strong. Our leadership continues to demonstrate our committment to increased student safety through listening sessions, affinity group meetings, and opportunities for participation in a wide variety of activities.

Last school year, Voices of Excellence (VOE) and the Jewish Affinity Group brought educational opportunities to students across the district with assemblies, presentations, and book readings. Student belonging surveys were administered three times and helped provide crucial information on how students feel about the school and community. Teachers and staff members received trauma-informed training to support thier work in the classroom and were provided opportunities to share feedback about the Equity Action Plan through min-surveys.

As a new school year is upon us, the district remains committed to the Equity Action Plan and ensuring that all students have access to a rich educational environment where they feel welcomed and supported.

Recognizing the diversity of our community, The School District of Springfield Township is committed to and accountable for advancing equity and excellence for all of our students. We, in the School District of Springfield Township, endeavor to provide equitable opportunities for high level, meaningful, and engaging learning experiences for each and every student, regardless of racial/ethnic background, economic condition or other dimension of identity or difference.

We recognize that in order to achieve Educational Equity we must apply principles of fairness and justice in the allocation of resources and work toward the elimination of institutional barriers to access and opportunity. We aim to ensure that funding, policies, practices, and initiatives will enable every student to receive what they need to maximize their success. In order to foster growth toward equity, we must engage in continuous reflection and ongoing measurement of our efforts.

Our district is a proud member of the DVCEE, Delaware Valley Consortium for Excellence and Equity, an organization sponsored by the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. Springfield Township is proud to continue our membership and work collaboratively with the 37 other districts in the Greater Philadelphia region to enhance equitable educational practices for all students.

For more information on DVCEE, please visit their website.

• Adopt and enforce an Educational Equity Policy (Complete)
• Identify administrator responsible for conducting review and analysis of data and leadership of EAP (Complete)
• Communicate the purpose and goals of the EAP broadly and consistently (Complete)
• Support conversations in the classroom that help students to be prepared for difficult topics and conversations around equity (On-going and embedded in practices)
• Improve safety for marginalized students, including students of color and LGBTQ+ students (On-going)
• Utilize analytics to assess the impact our communication has on students and families (On-going and embedded in practices)
• Create feedback/communication system for parent teacher conferences (On-going and embedded in practices)
• Provide training for ALL district staff on equitable practices that are able to be implemented in the classroom and across district offices (On-going and embedded in practices)

• Create a system for the collection, review and dissemination of relevant data (On-Going)
• Elicit feedback from students, staff, and families (On-Going)
• Create a K-12 course overview with language accessibility (Complete)
• Simplify and focus our communication to families (On-Going)
• Improve our website's accessibility and ease of use/clarity (Complete)
• Train our MTSS teams to utilize the MTSS process to improve our systems of identification/readiness (On-Going)
• Utilize an online platform for feedback from students and families (On-Going)
• Continue to communicate and implement recommended strategies for recruitment and retention of a diverse, representative workforce across the district (On-Going)

• Ensure that access and opportunit yield measurable outcomes
• Collaborate with parent organizations to develop a roadmap for decision-making K-12
• Explore scholarships/reduced fees, and sibling childcare to improve access to extracurriculars
• Work with our parent organizations to grow the Ambassadors Program so that families and students new to the district learn and understand how to navigate systems
• Identify, review, and report on primary indicators of growth/achievement
• Provide enrichment opportunities at the elementary level after school

• The district was awarded over $200,000 for a trauma informed grant that will help provide additional psychological staffing and provide trauma-informed professional development and resources for staff.
• Students in grades 3 to 12 were surveyed three times last year regarding school and community belonging. Students will continue to take surveys this school year for comparitive purposes.
• Course overview documents are available on the website in a variety of languages.
• The district continues to work diligently to attract, train, and retain staff members from diverse backgrounds.
• Advanced Placement exams were offered free of charge to all high school students enrolled in an AP class.

The following information is shared with families to help strengthen equity conversations in the home. Please note that these resources are not shared in the schools. However, we encourage families to use these resources to engage your children in conversations around equity in the home.