The PATH School Mission
The mission of The PATH (Purpose, Achievement, Talent, Heart) School is to provide a purpose-driven, culturally responsive learning environment that challenges scholars academically while supporting their social and emotional growth in order to develop conscientious citizens who are prepared to transform their communities.
At The PATH School, we will strive toward our mission guided by our core beliefs:
We believe all scholars can learn and thrive given the necessary supports to do so.
We believe consistently examining data, both academic and social/emotional, is a key lever that leads to school and scholar success.
We believe curricular choices and instruction must be rigorous, relevant, representative and engaging.
We believe when guided toward future paths that are purposeful, rewarding and meaningful, scholars persist to overcome obstacles and find true success.
We believe relationships and a strong community of trust are the cornerstones of safe, effective schools.
We believe authentic experiences prepare scholars to think beyond their current situation to begin thinking about the possibilities that lie ahead.
We believe purpose-driven learning must undergird our curriculum and instructional practices.
We believe culturally responsive pedagogy leads to scholar success.
PATH Teams
The PATH School (TPS) is designed to provide scholars purpose-driven opportunities for learning undergirded by academic rigor, culturally responsive teaching, and social and emotional development, surrounded by a community of support. Our scholar supports will only yield strong results when coupled with high expectations and challenging curricula. To this end, TPS will employ an educational model that includes wraparound supports characterized by a PATH team.
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In this model, each scholar is supported by a PATH team consisting of four adults: an academic counselor, a special educator, a therapist/social worker and a transition specialist, with each PATH team supporting 200-400 scholars.
Learning Model
The PATH School’s learning model is strengths-based and works to ensure that all of our work begins with scholars’ strengths as the driver. With that in mind, The PATH School learning model for academic and social and emotional development uses build, experience, collaborate, and reflect as a guide for scholar engagement throughout the school day. Because we believe that all scholars enter our school with a set of assets, we begin our work by building on those assets. By accessing scholars’ background knowledge and skills, we can build on that knowledge and those skills as scholars begin to experience the curriculum.
When scholars experience the curriculum, they are “doing”. They are actively reading, writing, computing, experimenting, and/or participating. We also believe collaboration is critical to scholar success, particularly given that many of the scholars we serve are from collectivist cultures where “societies emphasize relationships, interdependence within a community, and cooperative learning.” (Hammond, 2015) Because we believe in building on scholars’ assets or strengths, consistently providing opportunities for collaboration is another way we do that.
Finally, we believe reflection provides scholars the opportunity to take ownership of their learning and their habits. By reflecting, scholars are able to process content and skills and make adjustments moving forward.
PURPOSE-DRIVEN -- CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE -- ACADEMICALLY RIGOROUS—SOCIAL/EMOTIONAL
Our Academics
Purpose-driven
Living is learning. When learning is connected to living it can have a profound impact on the learner. At The PATH School, we strongly believe that curiosity, investigation, exploring new places and meeting new people are at the center of learning. We believe when young people have the opportunity to try new things it unlocks “something” within. We bring experts in our classrooms, and we work to continuously provide our scholars the opportunity to learn through robust experiences that unlock their curiosity about the world and their role in it.
Culturally responsive
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We recognize the cultural capital each of our scholars brings to our school community. We use the most common cultural tools—relationships, community, music, repetition, recitation, physical manipulation of content and ritual—in our classrooms daily. We understand that our parents are our first teachers, and the foundation they have laid prior to our coming to school plays a role in the way we learn. At The PATH School, we see these as the strengths with which our scholars come to us and use these strengths to aid in teaching and learning in our classrooms.
Academically rigorous
High expectations drive the work we do daily. The Indiana State Standards are the foundation of teaching and learning to ensure our young people are prepared for the rigor of state and national assessments. Our teachers promote a culture of achievement and implement instructional strategies that are proven to have the greatest positive impact on scholar achievement. Teachers are supported through robust professional development and observation and feedback sessions to continuously increase their instructional effectiveness in order to ensure they are prepared to teach at the highest levels. We work tirelessly to ensure every PATH scholar is equipped with the knowledge and skills to read, write, speak and compute at and above grade level.
Social/Emotional Wellbeing
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We strongly believe that in order for scholars to reach their truest potential, both academically and behaviorally, we must honor the humanity in each of them. We believe that begins by creating environments of belonging and connection. To that end, we employ of myriad of supports that provide scholars the opportunity to develop a sense of purpose, cope with stress, work toward goals and make meaningful connections.
