Pathways are system-wide learning progressions for students and supporting structures for teachers. Effective pathways are guided by three principles:
- Consistency. A pathway ensures that every student has consistent opportunities to learn computational thinking, not dependent on a particular teacher, school, or after-school club.
- Cumulativity. A pathway ensures that what a student learns this year isn’t just repeated next year but develops towards a broader goal.
- Competency-Based. A pathway focuses on learning by emphasizing the competencies that students will develop, not only the tools they will use.
The key components of developing a pathways include:
- Developing a district-wide vision for curricular integration of CT & CS in each grade band, including attention to the “why” in the eyes of students, teachers and parents
- Defining clear statements of competencies in terms of what students should know and be able to do in each grade band, annotated w/ short, illustrative examples or videos
- Identifying teacher professional development needs based on stated competencies & curricular resources
- Articulation of formative assessment for students & teachers, guiding improvement.
- Leveraging family and community resources to support learning
Each of these components is addressed throughout the toolkit, with resources to support you as you develop your district’s pathway.
