Get With the Program … and Finish It: Building Guided Pathways to Accelerate Student Completion

Abstract

In this chapter, we describe efforts by growing number of colleges and universities to redesign academic programs and support services to create “guided pathways” designed to increase the rate at which students enter and complete a program of study.

When Developmental Education is Optional, What Will Students Do? A Preliminary Analysis of Survey Data on Student Course Enrollment Decisions in an Environment of Increased Choice

“…This finding gives further credence to the notion that guided pathways can improve academic success, particularly for vulnerable students, as suggested by Jenkins and Cho (2013). Advisors could also display a variety of educational pathways clarifying how bypassing, delaying, or enrolling in DE courses may affect students' educational plans in the short-and long-terms in differential ways.…”

“…Answers to these questions may be useful for institutions in developing effective advising programs. Exploring these issues is particularly important given that there is increasing evidence suggesting that structured and guided pathways are beneficial for student completion of educational credentials in community colleges (Jenkins and Cho 2013).…”

Course-Taking Patterns of Community College Students Beginning in STEM: Using Data Mining Techniques to Reveal Viable STEM Transfer Pathways

“…Specifically, the highly nuanced results uncovered by the data mining techniques suggest that the design of a clear STEM transfer pathway may benefit from emphasizing completing math and subject matter courses early while carefully charting their sequence, so that students can build their math skills upon a foundational understanding of the substantive fields first. In addition, given the fact that articulation of courses in STEM transfer remains a thorny issue (Chaplot et al 2013;Jenkins and Cho 2014;Roksa and Keith 2008;Scott-Clayton 2011), a more systematic and consistent effort needs to occur to better streamline credit transfer and articulation agreements based on the best course patterns discovered in order to promote transfer, in STEM or other programs. In this process, the transferability of the designated courses must be clearly communicated to students in order to convince the course pattern followers to go on through the pipeline.…”

Academic Advising, Remedial Courses, and Legislative Mandates: An Exploration of Academic Advising in Florida Community Colleges with Optional Developmental Education

“…Particularly concerning is that few administrators believed that students understood their meta-major options. This finding is critical given previous evidence that entering students may not be equipped with enough information to select a meta-major without assistance (Collins 2013), yet clearly mapped degree programs have helped support student success (Jenkins and Cho 2013). It is possible that with the advising and instructional changes required by the legislation, fully integrating meta-majors was simply a larger task than the colleges could tackle.…”