Pathways to Grade Level Reading Design Teams Prioritize Strategies to Move to Action

This week, the three Pathways Design Teams prioritized a set of strategies to move to action on in North Carolina. The strategies aim to improve outcomes in three areas that are critical to ensure children are reading on grade level by the end of third grade:

  • Regular School Attendance
  • High Quality Birth through age Eight Care and Education
  • Social-Emotional Health

The three Design Teams met together on Wednesday, March 21 for a full day in order to decide on a small set of cross-sector strategies to focus on first. They prioritized the strategies after considering input from North Carolina parents and families, from local child and family service providers in 14 communities across the state, and from national research on what improves outcomes in these areas, primarily for children of color. The strategies will be shared broadly in the next few weeks.

The Pathways to Grade-Level Reading initiative is guided by the Pathways Partners—a large and growing stakeholder group of 150-200 people. They approach the work with a clear equity frame: ensure that those children and families with the most obstacles to success have the most support, given the realities of limited resources, time, attention and energy. As the Design Teams work over the next few months to hone in on tactics, activities and who should be responsible for taking action, it will be with equity top of mind.

The next meeting of the Design Teams will be June 4.