Survey shows strong student‑teacher relationships and school pride; peers and some subgroups show lower belonging

Haverford Township administrators presented results from the district’s fall PSSM (Psychological Sense of School Membership) survey at the April 9 work session, reporting participation from 3,353 students and several consistent patterns across grades and subgroups.

Christina Carter and a leadership team said overall findings show strong student‑teacher relationships and school pride, with elementary students reporting the highest overall belonging (average ~4.04 on the survey scale) and high‑school students lower (about 3.85). Questions tied to peer acceptance scored lower and were identified as an area for growth.

The presentation disaggregated results by race, religion and gender. Secondary students identifying as LGBTQ+ and some students in special education reported slightly lower belonging scores; the team cited student‑led clubs such as Rainbow Alliance, Best Buddies, Unified Athletics and targeted advisory/wellness programming as current and planned responses. Staff noted that cohorts across several years generally maintain or return to prior belonging levels, and that district initiatives (morning meetings, mentoring, Ignite leadership, wellness symposium) are intended to strengthen peer connections.

Administrators also said they plan to increase student engagement in survey design and communication so students understand how the data are used; student representatives proposed a PSSM awareness campaign and a monthly wellness symposium to surface peer issues and resources.

Next steps: district teams will continue disaggregation, report percent‑response distributions to add nuance to averages, and pilot student outreach and wellness‑day initiatives designed to address peer belonging and resource awareness.