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Community College Retention and Completion through Guided Pathways
Problem Statement
As an approach to increase higher education access to students in the 1970s and 1960s many community colleges were developed in such a way as to increase the enrollment rates at low costs. These colleges provided learners with a broad menu of programs, courses and delivery modes from which they were required to choose from (Jenkins, 2014). The colleges made it easy for the students to enroll at their convenience, take a few courses at a particular time and to stop if they pleased. Recently, community colleges increased their online course offerings, aiming to ease the process of access as well as reduce costs of education. However, all the features that made the community colleges accessible make them poorly planned to facilitate retention and completion of programs. Thus, the current design of community colleges does not enable the students to complete high quality programs, which are capable of preparing them for further education and employment.
With the focus on low cost enrollment, many community colleges often offer various disconnected programs, courses and support services in which the learners have to navigate through on their own. In most cases, students are confused because the colleges fail to offer sufficient information on the transfer choices and programs (Bailey, 2015). Additionally, students are discouraged if they do not get enough information on the path to success in their further education and career. Nonetheless, many students are frustrated by the way programs are organized, such that they fail to find a clear path to their end goals, which makes them drop out of school. Thus, colleges need to redesign support services and academic programs to develop clearly structured pathways, which are coherent with the students’ end goals (Bailey, 2015). For instance, the institution can provide feedback, monitor students’ progress, while supporting them in every step they make towards their goals. Thus, institutions ought to cooperate with employers, educators in the next level to ensure that their program learning outcomes align with students’ requirement for careers and further education.
References
Bailey, T. (2015). Implementing guided pathways at Miami Dade College: A case Study. Community College Research Center.
Jenkins, D. (2014). Redesigning community colleges for student success: Overview of the guided pathways approach. Community College Research Center.
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