Pathwaves is committed to learning from and alongside our Fellows and placement sites. We partnered with the PSESD’s Strategy, Evaluation & Learning team to co-design an evaluation process that engaged our Fellows, placement site supervisors, and Pathwaves staff.
Over the course of the 20-month Fellowship, our community participated in a number of activities that allowed us to evaluate our work together, identify areas of growth and change, and implement new strategies in pursuit of our shared mission. Many discoveries were met with immediate response and other findings led to adjustments in our program delivery for the second cohort which launched in September. We built a strong foundation with our first cohort, and are excited to share some of the updates that we have made to our program in response to feedback from Fellows and supervisors!
- Our first cohort requested more targeted learning opportunities related to their bodies of work during legislative session. This cohort, we reorganized the curriculum to coincide with real-time activities at Fellows’ placement sites including: drafting and reading bills, legislative staffing functions, understanding policy windows, and more.
- Fellows and placement site supervisors desired more opportunities for Fellows to reflect on their progress toward meeting the Fellowship goals. Our second cohort will be tracking their learning through regular assignments, reflections, and work samples, culminating in a final portfolio.
- Career coaching will start in the summer of the first year of the cohort (2025) in response to Fellow feedback. This will allow Fellows to start thinking strategically about their career trajectory at a much earlier stage, and make choices throughout the program that support their desired outcomes.
This learning has strengthened our program and we look forward to continuing our partnership with the PSESD throughout Cohort 2!
Read Pathwaves’ 2-page summary of the PSESD’s Final Evaluation Report here:
