Equitable Practices

The Equitable Practices Committee met on April 24, 2024. During this meeting, we reviewed the Equity Action Plan's three year goals, discussed our next steps for an audit, and reviewed data collected through our Panorama surveys. Out of this work, we developed an Equity Action Plan in Review document that will help guide our upcoming audit work through the Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium.

The School District of Springfield Township is pleased to present the 2024-2025 family information series, "It's Tough to Be a Parent." Mark your calendars for our upcoming events!

• Caring for Yourself and Your Child While Waiting for Help: September 25th at 6:30pm (Registration Link)
• TBD, October 9th at 6:30pm (Registration Link)
• Microaggressions: November 13th at 6:30pm (Registration Link)
• TBD, January 29th at 6:30pm (Registration Link)
• TBD, February 19th at 6:30pm (Registration Link)
• TBD, April 4th at 6:30pm (Registration Link)

All events will be held via Zoom. Please register to receive the link.

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.

Year 3 of our Equity Action Plan has started with a flourish! As we near the finish line for the district's first EAP, we continue to put best practices into place, learn about student needs, and delve into data to make actionable plans for progress.

One of our major projects has been the building review of student acheivement data. Data sets have been broken down to better understand how underperforming groups score on assessments and how to close achievement gaps. Our team has reviewed various data sets paying close attention to students from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. Further work in the Equitable Practices committee has helped buildings delve into various data sets to explore student belonging and acheivement and how they intersect.

Additional administrative work has focused on helping new students and staff members feel at home in Springfield Township. New students now benefit from a defined checklist that provides for tours, ice breaking activities, and introductions to key staff and support. Staff who join our team outside of the summer will not benefit from a half day workshop that will help them acclimate and learn more about Springfield Township.

One of our greatest points of pride is our student voices! Across all buildings and dimensions of identity, our students come together to share their feedback. Our superintendent and assistant superindent meet with their building student advisories monthly. In our middle and high school, our students have joined together to create affinity groups, attended DVCEE student workshops, and held multiple events to share their culture with others. Our students are the future and their are starting to shape it through their work in our schools.

As we flow through our final year in the first Equity Action Plan, we have already started the planning for our next three years. Springfield Township will be working with the Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium (MAEC) to start our audit process that will help develop our equity goals for 2025-2028.

We are extremely proud of our work here in Springfield Township and we hope that you are too!

On Tuesday, January 16, 2024, Superintendent, Dr. MaryJo Yannacone, presented a comprehensive review of Year 2 of the Equity Action Plan goals and how our cumulative work has positively impacted the district.

If you were not able to attend the Board presentation, you can view the video HERE or check out the slideshow HERE.

Overall data from Year 2 Student Belonging Surveys

• Ensure that access and opportunity yield measurable outcomes (On-going and embedded in practices)
• Collaborate with parent organizations to develop a roadmap for decision-making K-12 (On-going and embedded in practices)
• Explore scholarships/reduced fees, and sibling childcare to improve access to extracurriculars (On-going, survey forthcoming)
• Create systems of support so that families, students and staff members new to the district learn and understand how to navigate systems (Complete)
• Identify, review, and report on primary indicators of growth/achievement (On-going and embedded in practices)
• Provide enrichment opportunities at the elementary level after school (On-going)

• Create a system for the collection, review and dissemination of relevant data (On-going and embedded in practices)
• Elicit feedback from students, staff, and families (On-going and embedded in practices)
• Create a K-12 course overview with language accessibility (Complete)
• Simplify and focus our communication to families (Complete)
• 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 (Complete and embedded in practices)
• Utilize an online platform for feedback from students and families (Complete and embedded in practices)
• Continue to communicate and implement recommended strategies for recruitment and retention of a diverse, representative workforce across the district (On-going and embedded in practices)

• 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)

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.

Voices matter! In order to raise our voices to speak out against racism, we need the tools to help tackle the shame, guilt, and anger and focus on the work of being anti-racist.

1. Education: You cannot acknowledge or change that which you deny or choose not to see. First, you must educate yourself about the history and experiences of those who experience racism.

2. Intention: Anti-racism is a way of life. Set the intention to have an open mind and pursue your goal of anti-racism.

3. Courage: Facing facts about racism, white privilege, and white supremacy is hard. Sit with your discomfort and put courage, compassion, and vulnerability over comfort.

4. Individuality: Noticing the deals and qualities of people, both positive and negative, and set them apart from the group.

5. Humanity: Resist framing people into "good versus evil" and see the humanity in people.

6. Anti-Racist Work: Actively work to create anti-racist policies by promoting equity.

7. Equality: Hold all groups of people as equal and champion equality to fight for equity.

8. Empathy: Share, think about, and care about others' feelings.

9. Allyship: Take risks and share your privilege with any marginalized group of people. When you see something, say something. Fight to dismantle injustice.

10. Love: Choose love, healing, gratitude, and joy.

Reference: 10 Keys to Everyday Anti-Racism by Kirsten Ivey Colson and Lynn Turner