Researchers, Academics and Student Resources

Learn More About the PATHS® Program

This page is for students, researchers, or academics seeking information about our program for their coursework, studies, or meta-analyses. If you want information as part of a curriculum review committee/purchase decision, please visit the PATHS® Overview page.

PATHS® Curriculum

Program Overview

The PATHS® program is a comprehensive, evidence-backed SEL curriculum proven effective worldwide. It aligns with CASEL’s 5 competency framework for effective K-5 SEL instruction, with a convenient grade-level format that makes implementation easy and effective. The PATHS® program provides teachers and counselors with a systematic developmental approach for enhancing children's social and emotional understanding and academic competence. Implementing PATHS® helps students build the skills they need to understand and manage their emotions, leads to improved academic outcomes, and reduces disruptions in the classroom, resulting in smoother classroom management, improved teacher morale, and educational effectiveness.

The PATHS® Curriculum:

  • Is people-centric: The teacher leads units and activities, fully integrating the program into the ongoing curriculum.

  • Increases children's self-control

  • Increases children's ability to get along with others by improving friendship skills (sharing, caring, and other social skills)

  • Enhances children's self-esteem, self-confidence, and ability to give and receive compliments

  • To increase children's understanding and communication of the vocabulary of emotions (verbal mediation and dialoguing about feelings with others)

  • Helps children recognize and understand how one's behavior affects others.

  • Increases children's understanding and use of logical reasoning and problem-solving vocabulary

  • Improves children's knowledge of, and skill in, the steps of social problem solving

  • Strongly correlates to the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework (PATHS® Preschool/Kindergarten) and is positively evaluated for use in Head Start and other preschool classrooms

  • Helps meet Head Start's social and emotional development goals for school readiness

  • Addresses the Emotional Support, Classroom Organization, and Instructional Support domains of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) tool

  • Is a CASEL SELect and Blueprints Certified Promising program

Format and Delivery

  • Download a list of lessons indexed by topic and grade level.

  • Visit the overview page to learn more about each grade level and what is included in each classroom package.

Research and Logic Model

Frequently Asked Questions

Please see these FAQs and answers for the PATHS® curriculum.

Research Request

Do you need more information about our curricula? Please contact us here: