On April 27, 2018 the Chancellor’s Office hosted the “California Guided Pathways Peer-to-Peer Work Plan Reading Circle,” a one-day event designed to give teams from regional community colleges an opportunity to read each others’ Guided Pathways (GP) implementation plans in order to identify recurring challenges, opportunities and practices that might inform future support efforts.
All 114 California community colleges were invited to send a team of up to five staff members who were engaged in GP activities and were familiar with their college’s self-assessment and work plan. Registration and lodging costs for participants were then covered by the Chancellor’s Office.
The event’s four stated goals were to:
- Create regional communities of practice around GP;
- Identify common themes within work plans;
- Learn about regional GP efforts;
- Share strengths and successes.
“The Reading Circle brought colleges together to share their work, their challenges and their progress—and to deepen peer connections focused on our common work of putting students at the center of all we do,” said Linda Collins, Founder and Executive Director of the Career Ladders Project.
Among the many positive outcomes were recommendations regarding how best to facilitate peer-to-peer collaboration across schools. Suggestions included the creation of an “Online Community of Practice” to share resources; regularly scheduled sharing opportunities through regional workshops, site-based visits, webinar, etc.; the selection of regional coordinators to maintain this collaboration; and improved data-sharing across systems.
Like the recent Gabriner report, this event is part of an ongoing effort by the Chancellor’s Office to identify not only the systems and structures that are impeding GP reform, but also the promising practices for overcoming those impediments.
