The attendance area includes the boroughs of Bridgeport and West Conshohocken and a portion of Upper Merion township. Most of the students live within walking distance. The school's 290 students are mostly descendants of Irish, Italian, and Eastern European immigrants who worked the town's factories in better times. The school building, scheduled for replacement in 1999, is outdated and overcrowded. Yet Bridgeport thrives as a vibrant neighborhood school, combining small-town values with the latest in educational programs and practices.
Early intervention is a keystone of Bridgeport's educational approach.
These initiatives have reduced the number of students requiring remedial help in later grades. A second underpinning of the school's approach is current knowledge regarding active learning, student centered instruction, and multiple intelligences. All stress the individuality of each child and a belief that students learn best when afforded a variety of group and independent activities. The state's Pennsylvania Comprehensive Reading Plan II framework undergirds the school's reading and writing program. Among the strategies in place are reading and writing across the curriculum, extended reading and writing, big books, Sustained Silent Reading, mini-lessons, writing workshop, authentic literature, process writing, journals, study skills instruction, portfolios, guided, paired and independent reading, and systematic phonemic awareness instruction.