Pathways to Grade-Level Reading

What would be possible if…

• We adopted shared, whole child, birth-to-age-eight measures that put children on a pathway to grade-level reading?
• We coordinated strategies to support children’s optimal development beginning at birth?
• We aligned policies and practices that were rooted in how children develop?

The Pathways to Grade-Level Reading (Pathways) initiative is all about possibility. This collaborative of diverse leaders is building on North Carolina’s history of innovation and success to reach for a bold vision:

All North Carolina children, regardless of race, ethnicity or socioeconomic status, are reading on grade-level by the end of third grade, and all children with disabilities achieve expressive and receptive communication skills commensurate with their developmental ages, so that they have the greatest opportunity for life success. 

Reading well in the early grades predicts a child’s academic and career success. Research shows that improving third grade reading takes a coordinated birth-through-age-eight approach with aligned policies and practices that focuses on:

• Children’s Health and Development, Beginning at Birth
• Supported and Supportive Families and Communities
• High-Quality Birth-through-Age-Eight Learning Environments, with Regular Attendance

Driving the Pathways initiative is the foundational belief that together we can realize greater outcomes for young children than any of us can produce on our own. Pathways Partners work across disciplines, sectors, systems, and the political aisle.

Together, Pathways created a data framework and a policy framework to help drive action in our state towards grade-level reading for every child. We continue our collaborative work with these tools as our guide and a focus on racial equity: 

1. Pathways Measures of Success Framework with more than 60 indicators visualized in the Pathways Data Dashboard.
2. Pathways Action Framework with more than 40 prioritized actions visualized in the Pathways Action Map–coming soon! 

Pathways is an initiative of the NC Early Childhood Foundation in collaboration with NC Child, The North Carolina Partnership for Children, Inc., and BEST NC.

Read a two-page summary of Pathways here. 

Impact

• State leaders identified shared birth-to-age-eight, whole-child measures of success to put children on a pathway to grade-level reading.
• 95% of stakeholder respondents said they “felt confident that if the state made progress on these measures, we would improve third grade reading outcomes.”
• The NC General Assembly highlighted Pathways in the 2016 and 2017 budgets when it passed and updated provisions calling for greater birth-to-age-eight coordination across agencies and organizations, “including consideration of the NC Pathways to Grade-Level Reading.”
• Collaborative partner organizations have incorporated the Pathways measures into their own data tracking and reporting.
• Local communities across the state are using the Pathways Measures of Success Framework for collaborative community planning—identifying which of the Pathways shared measures to focus on locally and developing strategies for action to improve child and family outcomes.
• The NC Pathways Measures of Success Framework has been shared nationally and is being used by communities in other states as well who are focused on improving outcomes for young children.
• Hundreds of North Carolina leaders worked across sectors, geography, and the political aisle to co-create the NC Pathways to Grade-Level Reading Action Framework, which outlines expectations for the state’s child and family serving systems and actions to support children’s social-emotional health, ensure high quality birth-through-age-eight early learning environments, and create the conditions for every child to be in school every day.
• The Frameworks are informing the development of the state’s Early Childhood Action Plan, as well as serving as a foundation of other state-level early childhood initiatives like the Leandro Commission for Sound, Basic Education, the myFutureNC Commission, and the B-3^rd Interagency Council.

Advancing Work

Pathways Endorsements

Is your agency, organization or business ready to endorse Pathways? Let us know!

Since 2015, hundreds of North Carolina leaders have worked across sectors, geography, and the political aisle to co-create shared Measures of Success and an Action Framework for North Carolina.

• The Pathways to Grade-Level Reading Measures of Success are research-based, whole-child, birth-through-age-eight measures that can help North Carolina determine if our young children are on the path to early literacy.
• The Pathways to Grade-Level Reading Action Framework provides North Carolina with a path forward on the areas Pathways stakeholders identified for action first—children’s social-emotional health, high quality early care and education, and regular school attendance.

Pathways Partners are endorsing the Frameworks. They recommend that the shared Measures of Success serve as the foundation for building North Carolina’s state and local birth-through-eight system and agree that the actions in the Action Framework, if well-implemented, can improve children’s third grade reading and well-being outcomes. 

Click here to add your organization, agency or business to the list.