Report Finds Guided Pathways Adoption Slow

For community college students, the path towards a degree has been compared to a shapeless river: unending, with no current pushing them forward. Confronted with a vast array of options, students get lost, failing to take classes that build towards a clear goal. Frustration builds, and many wind up dropping out, having invested precious funds into their education, but with nothing to show for it.

One of the most popular attempts to give this shapeless river some form has been a set of shifts for schools called Guided Pathways. First presented in a 2015 book by scholars at Columbia University’s Community College Research Center (CCRC), Guided Pathways is designed to get students on clear tracks by giving them structure. Subject areas like health or business are organized into “meta-majors” that students can explore from the beginning of their time on campus. These programs are mapped to job and transfer opportunities, so that students can make clear decisions about what they want. Students are required to develop full-program plans by the end of their first terms and have mandatory consultations with advisors, who often specialize in a single meta-major. There is also academic support, including tutoring for foundational classes in math and writing,

Guided Pathways had been adopted over 300 colleges by the fall of 2019, and early results have been promising.

“It’s incredibly influential,” said Dr. Frank Harris III, co-director of the Community College Equity Assessment Lab at San Diego State University.

However, despite the widespread interest from institutions, a new report from the CCRC shows that full implementation has been slow: the majority of colleges that it examined have failed to scale at least one practice from each of four groups making up the full set of reforms.