Union teachers or community members,
serve full-time Pathways students as
well as students earning just one or two
credits through personalized learning.
Advising tends to progress through
seven stages:
1. Focusing a project. The advisor
helps the student identify personal
interests that can be converted to serious inquiry over four months or more.
Initial reading, reflective writing, some
community engagement, and hours of
conversation begin to reveal questions a
student wants to answer.
2. Exploration. Advisors and students
note resource material and community
experiences that might become part of
serious study. Most students start by
searching the Internet, returning with
materials that adults help them assess
for bias and reliability.
3. Project planning. Although project
planning occurs within a set format,
students and their guides continue to
revise throughout the semester as new
ideas and opportunities for reading,
writing, and community experience
appear. Some discoveries lead to dead
ends. Advisors then help students locate
other avenues—often with a community
mentor or a parent.
© SUSIE FITZHUGH
4. Producing evidence. While gathering
information, conducting interviews, and
doing community mentorships, students gather evidence of their learning
that they can include in exhibitions of
their work. Reflective writing assignments based on the standards punctuate
each semester, creating the foundation
for exhibitions.
5. Preparing to demonstrate proficiency.
As students study and work in com-
munity settings, advisors expend a great
deal of energy helping them revise and
refine their work so it becomes worthy
of academic credit. Lists connected to
program standards define specific tasks
students should complete. Intensity
marks this part of the process because
students’ exhibitions can earn them
a full semester of credit, more than a
semester’s credit—or no credit. Not all
Pathways students are ready to demon-
strate mastery in one or two semesters,
so projects may carry over to a new
semester.
with community members who have
expertise in students’ areas of interest.
This liaison, who drives endless miles
to and from mentorship sites, plays a
crucial role in making sure that students’ experiences in the field translate
into products that earn credit. She also
prepares community mentors to play a
new role as educators for students who
7. Revision. Drawing on this feedback,
a student’s advisor creates a final list of
changes necessary to earn credit. For the
last two weeks of the semester, advisors
work with each student to make sure
the student’s work meets the standards.
The Pathways team has found that
as they’ve improved the program and
as the steps for earning credit grow
increasingly clear, student culture has
grown more serious and energetic.
Community Mentors
Working with a community men-
tor shows students how understand-
ing ideas and processes or mastering
skills can make a real difference in
adult success. One of the Pathways
program advisors, the community
liaison, focuses on connecting students
may lack experience in adult careers or
roles. Community mentors often attend
student exhibitions and participate in
assessment.
