Equity Dashboard and Equity Climate Survey

STRATEGIC PLAN IMPLEMENTATION: Equity Dashboard and Equity Climate Survey

An Equity for All 2025 dashboard was launched in March 2021 to present our formative student outcome data as of mid-year. Summative indicators for 2020-21 were added to the updated dashboard and showed Hispanic, Economically Disadvantaged, current English Learners (but not former ELs) and Student with Disabilities student groups had the greatest rates of underrepresentation across KPIs. Within KPIs, the Talented and Gifted Program Identification has the largest disproportionalities across student groups. Students in grades 6-12, staff members and families had the opportunity to share their views in the school division’s first equity climate survey. Nearly 5,000 ACPS stakeholders participated in the survey, which gathered vital feedback to help identify critical areas for improvement related to the ACPS 2025: Equity for All Strategic Plan.

The equity climate survey is part of ACPS’ ongoing action to address racial inequities and remove barriers to learning for all students.

The survey focused on eight main themes: school climate, instruction and learning, teachers and instructional climate, equity, restorative practices, social-emotional environment and supports, family engagement and staff professional environment. Key areas of strength include:

Most families, staff and students had positive perceptions of the learning environment, teachers and school climate overall. 81% of students reported that they feel welcome at school, 76% said they are encouraged to participate in learning and 88% agreed that teachers provide extra support when needed. Families also reported positive impressions of the social-emotional environment and support at their school. In particular, 79% of families said that adults at school care about all students, and the majority also agreed that staff know how to connect students with supports and help students with problems other than schoolwork. Staff had especially positive perceptions of their relationships with both students and other staff at their school. Nearly all staff agreed they have positive relationships with students (98%) and other staff (92%); 70% of staff members agreed that technology access is equitable. These high levels of agreement are not common across national data and underscore the efforts of leadership and staff in ACPS in this area.

Survey results indicate opportunities to continue addressing inequities across the division, with areas of continued focus including the use of restorative practices, distributing resources equitably across all schools and ensuring all student, staff and family feedback is heard and valued in decision-making processes.