Equity Action Plan

Equity Vision Statement

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.

Adopted by the Springfield Township Board of School Directors in September, 2019.

About the Equity Action Plan

On January 18, 2022, the Springfield Township Board of School Directors approved the Equity Action Plan for the 2022 through 2024 school years. The EAP is the culmination of the work of the district wide Equity Team, comprised of staff at all levels, departments, and schools. In drafting the EAP, the District hired the University of Pennsylvania Delaware Valley Consortium (DVCEE) for Equity and Excellence to conduct a quality review, which included observations, interviews, and meetings with students, families, staff, administration and board members in the Fall of 2021. The research team consulted with the Equity Team members on the development of core questions for the review process, and following their time in the district, the research team met with the Equity Team to provide feedback on the EAP.

The Equity Action Plan is designed to promote equitable practices throughout the school community and in all schools. Fundamentally, it is critical for the district to help ensure that all students have access to a world-class education that will prepare them for success in the classroom, and in life. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the School District of Springfield Township to create a culture of inclusivity, where all students feel safe, welcome, and truly have a sense of belonging. The Board of School Directors fully supports this effort through the adoption of the Equity Statement, a partnership with the University of Pennsylvania Delaware Valley Consortium for Excellence and Equity, and a commitment to all meaning ALL students.

Participation in the DVCEE

(Delaware Valley Consortium for Excellence and Equity)

Our district is a proud member of the DVCEE, an organization sponsored by the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. The DVCEE includes 38 school districts in the Greater Philadelphia region that come together each month for professional development in the following areas:

Evidence-based professional learning from nationally-recognized scholars and practitioners.
Innovative strategies for addressing district-school organizational and instructional issues, and student underachievement.
Leadership learning opportunities for middle and high school students of color.
Enhanced recruitment of administrators and teachers of color.
Support in the development and implementation of equity-informed district strategic plans.
Sharing of leadership and learning experiences.
Regular, active collaboration with other consortium districts to examine policies and share promising practices.

Equity in Curriculum and Instruction

Curricular resources, including the selection and adoption of new instructional materials and textbooks, are reviewed to ensure that they not only meet academic standards, but that they are representative of a diverse group of students and diverse perspectives. Our Language Arts curriculum reading selections, from kindergarten through grade 12, are chosen to ensure that illustrations, themes, titles, and subjects are representative of a diverse group of characters and authors. Work is currently ongoing in the revision of the K-12 social studies curriculum that includes an examination of the Social Justice Standards created through Learning for Justice, an organization whose mission is to help teachers and schools educate children and youth to be active participants in a diverse democracy, and which emphasizes social justice and anti-bias. The Social Justice Standards show how anti-bias education works through the four domains of identity, diversity, justice and action. As curriculum continues to be revised and developed, the Social Justice Standards are a critical thread running through the identification of state standards and content to be mastered. Similarly, the recently revised Health curriculum was extensively reviewed to ensure inclusion of current topics of interest, including gender identity.

In addition to work in curriculum, instructional work is centered on the use of data to help inform instructional practices. Disaggreated data will be reviewed to support the equity work. Recent work has focused on areas such as the examination of data to decrease course failure rates at the high school, to increase student academic performance through unrestricted access to Honors and Advanced Placement coursework, to reduce disciplinary and behavioral incidents, including suspensions, at the middle school, and to improve performance in math and language arts at the elementary schools.