What’s Next for Pathways to Grade-Level Reading?

Pathways believes we can accomplish more for young children and families together than any of us can do alone. Since 2015, together, we have co-created shared cross-sector, birth-through-age-eight measures of children’s success, agreed on priorities to focus on first, and outlined a plan of action to improve young children’s and families’ outcomes.

This year is all about putting the Pathways Measures of Success Framework and Pathways Action Framework into action. Here’s an update on where we are and what we’re planning for the rest of 2019. Let us know what you think!

Improving NC’s Early Childhood Data

Many of you helped co-create the Pathways Measures of Success Framework, which outlines 50-60 birth-through-age-eight measures that research shows influence early literacy and young child and family well-being. NCDHHS then built from your foundational work to create the NC Early Childhood Action Plan. Pathways is collaborating with state agencies, data experts, policy thinkers, community data users and other partners to convene the NC Early Childhood Data Advisory Council and two data workgroups in 2019 to continue to improve early childhood data collection, analysis and use in North Carolina.

  • The NC Early Childhood Data Advisory Council is a collaborative effort between Pathways and NCDHHS, with support from the Duke Endowment and the state’s Preschool Development Grant. The Council will provide strategic direction and use its influence and decision-making authority to improve the quality and scope of early childhood data in North Carolina. Primary objectives for 2019 include prioritizing where to start to fill current gaps in early childhood data collection and outlining an approach for reporting on and visualizing the state’s early childhood population-level data for public access. The Data Advisory Council will build off of data development work facilitated last fall by the NC Institute of Medicine and Pathways.
  • The Outcomes at Kindergarten Entry data workgroup will review research and best practices to co-create consensus recommendations for what measure or portfolio of proxy measures would best track children’s outcomes at kindergarten entry at the population level. The work will build from previous work done in NC and other states in this area.
  • The Social-Emotional Health data workgroup will consider work being done in other states and locally to co-create consensus recommendation for what measure or portfolio of proxy measures would best measure children’s social-emotional health at the population level.

Learning from You: What is happening in NC on the Pathways Actions?

If you haven’t had a chance yet, check out the Pathways Action Framework. To create it, your colleagues on the Pathways Design Teams—close to 100 policy thinkers, state agency representatives, early childhood systems builders and more—combined their expertise with local community and family input, and research on what moves the needle, particularly for children of color. The actions in the Framework explicitly support building racial equity in North Carolina’s early childhood systems.

Now we want to learn from you where NC is on each of the actions and how Pathways can support your work to move them forward. We are having one-on-one conversations with policy, practice, and data leaders, and we’ll be sharing out that information with you during 2019. If you are working to advance one of the Pathways actions, or to support racial equity and family engagement in early childhood systems, we’d love to talk to you! Email Mary Mathew, NCECF’s new Collaborative Action Manager, at mmathew@buildthefoundation.org and let us know. Learn more about Mary Mathew and her role here

Staying in Touch

Starting this week, the NC Early Childhood Foundation will include a Pathways update item weekly in our newsletter and on our website, and share it on social media. Want to make sure you get the updates?

Endorsing the Pathways Frameworks

We encourage all of our partner agencies, organizations, and businesses to endorse the Pathways Frameworks. Click here to learn more and endorse the Frameworks. Thanks to many of you who have already made your endorsement. Are you on the list?  Click here to find out!

Next Steps

As we continue implementation of the Pathways Action Framework, we will keep you updated on how Pathways is:

  • Improving NC’s early childhood data collection and analysis on the Pathways measures of success.
  • Providing tools to support Pathways Partners in aligning their work to the Pathways measures and actions.
  • Fostering collaboration across state-level early childhood initiatives.
  • Supporting early childhood systems in learning from and engaging families and local communities.
  • Keeping a sustained focus on racial equity in NC’s early childhood systems building.
  • Tracking and analyzing policy and sharing progress on how policies and practices advance the Action Framework.
  • Communicating strategically to keep Pathways relevant and valuable as an initiative.
  • Supporting policy work on some actions in the Action Framework.
  • Convening Pathways Partners annually to support our collaborative work to put Pathways into action.