2019 Reports

Redesigning Your College Through Guided Pathways: Lessons on Managing Whole-College Reform From the AACC Pathways Project

Jenkins, Davis; Lahr, Hana Elizabeth; Brown, Amy E.; Mazzariello, Amy N.

More than 300 colleges across the country are implementing guided pathways reforms, all of them facing unique challenges and circumstances as they take on whole-college redesigns. This report, based on fieldwork CCRC conducted at eight of the 30 colleges in the first cohort of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) Pathways Project, describes how institutions are managing the broad-based transformation of programs, student services, and related support systems involved in guided pathways reforms. In doing so, it offers guidance for others seeking to transform their institutions using the guided pathways model.

Although the eight colleges in the study varied in terms of size, geography, and student demographics, there were striking similarities in their overall approach to planning and implementing guided pathways. Reforms at all eight colleges can be thought of in four phases:

1. laying the groundwork for whole-college redesign,
2. introducing guided pathways to the college community,
3. supporting collaborative planning and implementation, and
4. sustaining and institutionalizing student success reforms.

The authors describe how the colleges approached each phase of the guided pathways change-management process and offer recommendations for replicating their successes and avoiding pitfalls. Overall, whole-college change is most effective when stakeholders from all levels of the institution are involved in planning and implementing guided pathways reforms. It is also important for those leading the reforms to acknowledge that the college itself creates barriers to student success and to engage the college community in working collaboratively to identify and address those barriers.