Pathways is designed to serve adult English language learners (ELLs) in the field of Early Education and Care and intends to:

• Strengthen the links between higher education, the early childhood community, and adult ELL professionals within this community; and
• Open access and opportunity, advance professional knowledge and skills, and ensure quality services for children and families.

Pathways focuses on both early childhood education (ECE) and contextualized writing/communication courses to foster educators' content knowledge and English-language acquisition. The initiative has built-in academic, literacy, and social support services to ensure successful transitions of students into degree programs.

Program Focus and Structure

The Pathways for English language learners program is composed of three cohorts of students paired together with appropriate academic, social, and linguistic supports to afford each student the opportunity to succeed:

• Cohort I: Pathways for Spanish-speaking family childcare providers
• Cohort II: Pathways for ELLs in the mixed-delivery system
  ***Information sessions coming soon in January***
• Cohort III: Pathways for ELLs transitioning from 2- to 4-year degree programs
  ***Information sessions coming soon in January***

Pathways Academic and Literacy Mentors

Pathways' academic and literacy mentors will provide individualized coaching to address specific learning and skill-building challenges and to support the connection between coursework/academic learning and practice in students' ECE settings. Mentors will:

• Develop individualized literacy plans to support English language proficiency.
• Build student competency and application of knowledge gained in class.
• Set goals and incorporate new knowledge into classroom practice and into Individual Professional Development Plans (IPDPs).
• Pathways will include social workers (one per cohort) to support and provide non-academic resources to participants based on individual needs and to minimize the number of stressors.

Pathways Program Engagement Goals

• Engage institutions of higher education from across the state in the development and implementation of this project.
• Share research, gather feedback, and present strategies from/to institutions of higher education who have early childhood programs.

Pathways Advisory Committee

Pathways will engage an advisory committee from across the state to:

• Advise on the program design
• Guide and monitor the effectiveness of the program
• Offer scholarly advice and integrate applied research
• Engage in and support research initiatives, publication and dissemination of results, and add scholarship to the program
• Advise on program sustainability

Cultural Competency

• The Aspire/Pathways staff is a diverse team with extensive experience in early childhood, adult ELLs, and multilingual communities.
• Program staff, mentors, and other academic specialists will be culturally and linguistically diverse professionals who are experienced in adult learning and who represent diverse communities.

Program Evaluation

• Pathways will use evaluation results to identify best practices and disseminate them to ECE and higher education communities through the state Department of Early Education and Care, the program website, journal articles, conferences, and other networks and forums.
• The program will use multiple sources of data to measure students' skills and knowledge acquisition.

Connection. Innovation. Optimism