Preprint: Teachers can do it with support: Fidelity across a decade of Pathways-to-Success

Pathways-to-Success is a teacher-led, teacher-trained, universal, whole-classroom, activities-based, identity-based motivation program delivered with implementation support in the fall. Teachers’ fidelity of delivery matters; it bolsters academic trajectories by affecting identity-based motivation. Across ten years and four states, 122 schools were trained and 116 implemented at least once, engaging about 8,387 students. We asked whether teachers, on average, deliver Pathways-to-Success with fidelity and which teacher-level and school-level factors shaped fidelity. Ninety-two schools (203 teachers, 6,189 students) had sufficient data to score fidelity and code school-level predictors. Implementation support mattered–teachers averaged above-threshold fidelity and engaged with training, preparation, and delivery aids. Engagement (consistently preparing with the manual, not neglecting manualized delivery-time marks) bolstered fidelity, as did urbanicity, student math proficiency, and positive school climate. Despite this variability in school-level factors, on average, teachers delivered with fidelity. Providing teacher support is worthwhile and should be institutionalized as part of program delivery.