The Pathways to Reading materials partially meet expectations for alignment to research-based foundational skills instruction. The program provides systematic and explicit instruction in foundational literacy skills, including phonics, phonemic awareness, high-frequency words, and decoding, with structured routines and cumulative review. Phonics instruction follows a clear scope and sequence, incorporating blending, segmenting, and encoding, while decodable texts support phonics lessons. However, phonemic awareness instruction is not fully systematic and does not consistently align with phonics, and small-group instruction follows a different sequence, leading to potential gaps.

Students engage in handwriting and spelling practice, but spelling instruction starts late, and they do not write sentences using newly learned phonics patterns independently. High-frequency word instruction is strong but lacks opportunities for contextual spelling practice. Instruction in syllabication and morpheme analysis is limited, and while assessments are frequent, they do not measure decoding in context or provide targeted intervention strategies.

Fluency instruction includes structured routines such as echo reading and rereading for accuracy and prosody, but corrective feedback is minimal, and fluency assessments are not systematically included. Assessments occur every nine weeks for phonics and spelling, categorizing students as on track or at risk, but specific intervention lessons are missing. The Quarterly Literacy Plan and Week Overview are misaligned, causing inconsistencies in pacing.