Pathways helps administrators and evaluators organize evaluation activities across the school year. It defines required milestones such as observations, summative evaluations, self-evaluations, and growth plans. This article explains how Pathways works and how to set up, assign, and track progress.
Overview
Pathways is a feature within Lebra Ascend that allows you to create structured evaluation timelines for staff. A Pathway includes a sequence of milestones with due dates and required quantities.
Each pathway helps standardize evaluation workflows, track completion, and ensure all required activities are completed on time.
How Pathways Works
A pathway includes three main components:
Pathway name - A label for the plan (I.e., "Tenured Teacher" or "New Hire")
School year dates - A Start date of Pathway and End date of Pathway that define the timeline
Milestones - Evaluation activities with a type, due date, and quantity.
Milestone types include:
PDP — Set the teacher's goals, focus standards, and action steps for the year.
Self-Evaluation — Teacher rates themselves against district standards and submits supporting evidence.
In-Person Meeting — Structured conversation to discuss progress and document next steps.
Walkthrough — Brief, informal classroom visit to capture focused evidence.
Formal Observation — Formal classroom visit with ratings, feedback, and action steps against the full rubric.
PDP Update — Teacher documents mid-cycle progress on PDP goals.
PDP Year End — Year-end review of PDP goals, capturing outcomes and reflections.
Summative Evaluation — Year-end synthesis of all evidence into final ratings and written feedback.
Note: If your organization uses a custom name for PDPs, that name will appear throughout the platform.
Note: Additional milestone types, such as Walkthrough and In-Person Meeting, may be available depending on your organization's settings. If your organization does not use self-evaluations, that milestone type will not appear.
Each assigned Pathway tracks progress using these statuses:
On Track - All milestones are current
Overdue - One or more milestones are past due
Completed - All milestones are finished
Tip: Hover over a status badge to see why a person is in that state — an overdue badge names the specific milestone that's past due and its due date, and an on-track badge shows what's next.
Pathways and the School Year
Every pathway belongs to a specific school year. This keeps each year's timelines separate, so last year's pathways stay intact as a record while you build the new year's.
On the Settings > Pathways page, a school year dropdown sits next to the search box. It opens on your organization's current school year; change it to view pathways from another year. Years are shown in the format 2026-27.
Note: A pathway's start and end dates must fall within the school year dates set in Settings > Ascend > General. If your dates are rejected, check that setting first — only administrators can change it.
How Pathways Connects to Evaluations and Reporting
Pathways organizes evaluation activities across the platform:
Observations and Evaluations
Observation milestones define how many observations are required and when they are due. Evaluators can track these from the Evaluator Dashboard.
Summative Evaluations
Summative milestones set deadlines for final evaluations based on collected evidence.
Self-Evaluations and PDPs (Growth Plans)
Evaluators can request self-evaluations and PDPs directly from the Evaluator Dashboard. These are tied to Pathway milestones to track completion.
State Reporting
Pathway progress and evaluation data feed into the State Reporting page in Ascend.
How to Access Pathways
To configure Pathways (administrators):
Navigate to Settings > Pathways
To view and track progress:
Evaluators: Go to Ascend > Evaluator Dashboard
Administrators: Go to the Pathways page
How to Create a Pathway
Navigate to Settings > Pathways
Confirm the school year dropdown shows the year you're building for
Click Add Pathway
Enter a Pathway name
Select the Start date of Pathway
Select the End date of Pathway
Under Timeline, click Add Milestone
For each milestone:
Select a type (Formal Observation, Summative Evaluation, Self-Evaluation, PDP, and others depending on your settings)
Set a due date (must fall within the school year range)
Set the quantity (minimum of 1)
Repeat to add additional milestones as needed
Click Add Pathway
Note: You can add multiple milestones of the same type with different due dates (I.e., one observation in September and another in March).
Edit a Pathway
On the Pathways tab, locate the Pathway
Click the three-dot menu
Select Edit
Update the Pathway details
Click Save Changes
If you close with unsaved changes, you will be prompted to confirm.
Duplicate a Pathway
On the Pathways tab, click the three-dot menu
Select Duplicate
Update the name if needed
(Optional) Select Add one year to new pathway
This option shifts all dates forward one year for the duplicate Pathway — the quickest way to roll a pathway into the next school year
Click Duplicate Pathway
Delete a Pathway
On the Pathways tab, click the three-dot menu
Select Delete
Confirm the deletion
This removes the Pathway, its milestones, and its data from all assigned users.
Assign a Pathway to Staff
The Assignments page is where you set up your year: pathways, evaluators, reviewers, and framework roles for everyone at once.
Navigate to Settings > Pathways > Assignments
Select one or more staff members
Click Bulk Assign
Select a Pathway from the dropdown menu
You can also assign an Evaluator, Reviewer, and Framework Role from this page
Click Assign
You can also assign Evaluators, Reviewers, or Roles from the same toolbar or individual row actions.
Finding staff who are missing something
Three cards above the Assignments table count the people who aren't fully set up. Select a card to filter the table to exactly those people — the fastest way to close gaps before the year starts.
Not assigned an evaluator
No pathway assigned
No framework role assigned
Select the card again to clear the filter.
Tip: Work these three cards down to zero at the start of the year. Anyone missing an evaluator, pathway, or framework role can't be moved through their evaluation workflow.
Filtering and sorting the Assignments table
The table shows Framework Role, Pathway, Evaluator, and Reviewer for each person. Anything unset reads Not assigned.
Open the filters to narrow the list. Each filter is multi-select, so you can combine several values at once, and each has its own search box for long lists:
Group, Pathway, Framework Role, Title, Position, Status, Evaluator, Reviewer
Other controls:
Choose Unassigned within a filter to find people missing that attribute
Use Sort by to order the list by First Name (A-Z or Z-A), Last Name (A-Z or Z-A), or Title (A-Z or Z-A)
Use Rows per page to show more or fewer people at a time
Click Reset filters to clear everything
Note: When filters are active you'll see a Filtering · clear indicator, so it's always obvious you're looking at a subset rather than your whole staff.
Assigning across every matching person
When you select rows, you'll be offered Select all matching results. This extends your action to every person matching your current filters — not just the ones on screen — so you can set up a whole building or role in one action. Use Clear selection to start over.
Row actions
Each row's ⋯ (more) menu includes:
Assign Pathway and Unassign Pathway
Assign Evaluator and Unassign Evaluator
Assign Reviewer and Unassign Reviewer
Assign Role
Request Self-Evaluation
Add to Group
Archive — remove someone from active assignment views without deleting their records
Sending Task Reminder Emails
Rather than chasing people individually, you can email a batch of staff about the tasks they still owe you.
Steps
From the Pathways page, select the staff you want to remind.
Choose Send task reminders.
Select which outstanding tasks to remind them about:
Professional Development Plan (PDP)
Observation reflection
Summative report reflection
Self evaluation
Select Send Reminders.
Note: Employees with no outstanding tasks won't receive an email, so it's safe to select a whole group without worrying about reminding people who are already done.
Staff also receive automatic pathway notification emails as their milestones come due.
Manage and Track Progress
From the Pathways page (administrators):
Navigate to the Pathways page
Use summary cards (Staff Assigned, On Track, Overdue, Completed) to filter
Review the table for Pathway details, including status and due dates
Use search, filters (Group, Pathway, Status, Evaluator), and sorting
Click Reset filters to clear filters
Reading the dashboard at a glance
The dashboard is built so you can triage without opening each person's page.
Timeline column — a visual view of where each person sits in their pathway. Select a milestone pill to open that item directly, rather than navigating to the person's page and finding it.
Formal Observations column — how many formal observations each person has, so you can spot who's behind on observation count.
Status badge tooltips — hover a badge to see the reason behind it:
Overdue names the specific milestone that's past due and its due date
On Track shows the next milestone coming up
Completed confirms all milestones are complete
View assigned / View all employees — switch between only the people assigned to you and everyone you have permission to see.
Best practices
Set up Pathways before the school year begins
Confirm your school year dates in Settings > Ascend > General first, since pathway dates must fall inside them
Use duplication for year-over-year consistency
Clear the three flag cards on the Assignments page to zero before the year starts
Assign evaluators at the same time as Pathways
Monitor the Pathways page regularly for overdue items, and use task reminders instead of chasing individually
Ensure staff profiles include a valid email and role
Use Groups to organize and filter staff
Frequently Asked Questions
Who can create or assign Pathways?
Administrators can create, edit, duplicate, and delete Pathways from Settings > Pathways and assign them from Settings > Pathways > Assignments.
Can Pathways be edited after assignment?
Yes. Changes apply to all staff currently assigned to the Pathway.
I can't find a pathway I created. Where did it go?
Check the school year dropdown on the Pathways page. Pathways are grouped by school year, so a pathway built for a different year won't appear until you switch to it.
What happens if a staff member is missing required information?
If a staff member is missing an email or role, certain actions cannot be completed. The system will display the reason, and the profile must be updated before retrying.
How does Pathways impact evaluations or reports?
Pathways defines timelines and expectations. Milestones determine when evaluation activities must be completed, and statuses reflect progress.
Can Pathways be reused across school years?
Yes. Use the Duplicate feature and select "Add one year to new pathway" to shift the dates forward.
What does "Not Assigned" mean in filters?
It shows staff members who do not have a Pathway assigned.
Can I assign a Pathway to multiple staff at once?
Yes. Select multiple staff on the Assignments page and assign the Pathway in one action. To go further, use Select all matching results to apply your assignment to everyone matching your current filters.
How do I remove a pathway or evaluator from someone?
Use the row's ⋯ menu and choose Unassign Pathway, Unassign Evaluator, or Unassign Reviewer.
What does Archive do?
Archiving removes a person from active assignment views without deleting their evaluation records.