During late February and throughout March, the Chancellor’s Office, in partnership with IEPI, the Academic Senate, Career Ladders Project, and RP Group, conducted a series of workshops designed to support the forward motion of Guided Pathways implementation. All seven of the workshops were well-attended and demonstrated the need for teams to spend some time together thinking, talking, and activating their aspirations. One participant noted: “We could have never finished the Work Plan without the time to dedicate to it today.”
Many colleges are focused on planning efforts, as the multi-year work plan deadline looms. As colleges plan for the future, however, it’s important to contextualize the system in this effort. Of the 114 colleges that committed to Guided Pathways exploration and implementation, 77 percent self-identified as being in the “early adoption” stage.
It’s clear that the majority of practitioners perceive their colleges to be at the very beginnings of this transformation. The crucial need to poise each college for a successful launch means that many of the planning efforts are being centered on developing governance and implementation structures that will help stakeholders understand the framework more clearly, and begin to apply the concepts locally.
Because the multi-year work plan covers just the first 18 months of activities and priorities, many colleges will be putting together cross-functional teams, planning ways to engage more people in the local dialogue, and establishing leadership and responsibility for moving the inquiry process forward.
The formal plans are due March 30, 2018, but those plans can be revised after that point, and should be viewed as living documents that help the colleges track dynamic changes over time. The plan should be viewed as a tool, not just a compliance element. Plans will be available at all times, in the NOVA system, as a continuous reference for tracking planning and progress. For questions about planning or submission, please contact guidedpathwaysinfo@cccco.edu.
