This equity story describes the ways that Palmyra Public School District has increased equity in student enrollment in AP/IB courses.

Student Voice in Policy Creation and Implementation

At our district, we prioritize equity throughout our organization. Equity is one of our five-year strategic goals by our Board of Education. As a part of our Board of Education and Strategic Plan division, we have a member of our high school team represented. District and school administration take these calls to action very seriously. The administrative team partnered with a non-profit organization to expand access to upper-level rigorous courses including Dual Credit (DC) and Advanced Placement (AP). As a part of this, students took a survey that identified their reservations about taking AP, their trusted adults in the building, and general career and interest in taking upper-levels courses. Students were then paired with a trusted adult with a focus on minority populations. The data from the student survey was also shared with the staff to allow for more meaningful dialogue between individual teachers and students during the recommendation process to combat some of the students' apprehensions regarding AP offerings.

Inclusive Faculty/Staff Leadership

Through our continued partnership with the non-profit, staff received trusted adult training on how to encourage and support our targeted student populations based on survey results. A staff survey was conducted through the non-profit regarding the referral and recommendation process for AP courses and modifying our ideas of success in those classes. The data was aggregated and analyzed by school and district administration, and professional development was implemented. Staff received implicit bias professional development through a partnership with the Division on Civil Rights (DCR). We will continue to partner with the Division on Civil Rights (DCR) in the future. Lastly, the district conducted a comprehensive Equity Audit on our K–12 English Language Arts curriculum inclusive of primary and secondary sources. The results of the audit provide increased guidance and accountability to district personnel, ensuring that all our students can see themselves represented in the lessons and literature within their classes.

Collaboration with Families

For families, we have opened communication to let them know that students were targeted as comparable (to currently enrolled AP/DC students) AP/Dual Credit candidates and provided the information of the school guidance counselor who can assist in enrollment in specific courses or answer any questions. We included community members in the development of the Strategic Plan that resulted in a focus on equity, diversity, and inclusion. We host several open houses and informational sessions throughout the year to inform and educate the parents on our growing list of Honors and AP courses as well as the importance of their involvement in the recommendation and scheduling process. This year, we also hosted our first "Scheduling Night" for the parents which highlighted the district's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives and the parents' role in assisting their child with the selection of the advanced courses.

Structural Changes for Equity

Our administrative team now includes a new Coordinator of Accountability and Data Analysis. This role plays an integral part in dissecting the current district data and disseminating that data to teachers and staff members to drive instructional decisions in the classroom. We were also able to add a School Social Worker to our District staff to support the many social/emotional needs of our students. As previously mentioned, we partnered with the non-profit, to obtain qualitative and quantitative data to expand our curricular and programmatic offerings and ensure equity within those offerings. We expanded our Early College High School program to include partnerships with three local colleges/universities. Importantly, the district’s partnership with one of these universities, as a grant recipient, is providing many of our students with affordable access to dual credit courses. Also, the grant provided eight staff members an opportunity to complete their graduate degrees and supported dual enrollment course offerings at the high school level. These partnerships were established with the hopes of offering our economically disadvantaged students the opportunity to take dual enrollment courses at a discounted (or free) cost to the families. These programs were also developed to ensure automatic acceptance into these two-year and four-year higher learning institutions.

Utilization of Quantitative Data

Using a district-designed, multiple-measures criteria, 66% of students were identified in Algebra 2 as initially eligible, and 67.2% of Grade 10 English Language Arts students were identified as eligible. This means they met standards of criteria across benchmarks and marking period grades. Any student scoring sufficient marking period grades and meeting or exceeding expectations on local benchmarks or state assessments was automatically eligible for upper-level courses. Also, students that were showing progress in these areas were considered for placement. On the first year's return to formal state assessments post-COVID, 46.1% of 9th-grade students met or exceeded their Language Arts assessments, and 20.9% met or exceeded expectations on the Algebra I assessment. The non-profit gave us a targeted participation rate for minority students based on the outreach list that they provided to us based on the survey results that they collected. They had proposed an enrollment number of 30 African American students, 18 Hispanic students, and 8 white students. Based on current Spring 2023 enrollment requests, we have 34 African American students, 23 Hispanic students, and 11 white students requesting AP or dual credit courses next year. We have met our goals designed by Equal Opportunity Schools in all populations.