Pathway to Academic Success Project

The Pathway to Academic Success Project trains teachers to improve the reading and writing abilities of English Learners (ELs) in grades 6-12 who have an intermediate level of English proficiency by incorporating cognitive strategies into reading and writing instruction. The cognitive strategies include goal setting, tapping prior knowledge, asking questions, making predictions, articulating and revising understanding of text, and evaluating writing. Teachers receive 46 hours of professional development per year over 2 years, including five or six full-day meetings and five after-school meetings throughout each school year. Teachers are also encouraged to meet in professional learning communities for at least 1 hour each week. Teachers then implement the strategies during their regular English language arts class time. Most teachers report spending at least 60 hours of their class time using Pathway to Academic Success Project strategies with students during each school year. Teachers receive coaching support from experienced Pathway to Academic Success Project teachers and classroom materials including wall posters, preprinted class sets of readings and handouts, bookmarks, cognitive sentence starters, highlighters, binders, and model lessons based on culturally relevant texts.