Publications & Research
Guided Pathways’ Transformational Impact on California Community Colleges
With 20 community college campus partners, we launched the equity-focused California Guided Pathways (CAGP 1.0) project in 2016 to provide tailored support to community college students based on four pillars: (1) clarify pathways to student goals, (2) help students choose and enter a pathway, (3) help students stay on path, and (4) ensure that learning is happening. Our goal was to enable students to choose and enter a program that aligns with their goals and ensure they stay on a path to completing their degree. From 2020 to 2024, we set in motion the second phase of CAGP (CAGP 2.0), which included 18 new colleges and continuing support for 18 of the initial colleges. Recently, we asked Engage R+D, an equity-focused learning and evaluation firm based in Southern California, to evaluate the CAGP endeavor between 2021-2024.
Overall, we learned that:
- The time and resource investment of CAGP 2.0 markedly contributed to the deepening and strengthening of Guided Pathways (GP) implementation to support transformational change at the participating colleges over the three-year period.
- The level of institutional change needed to make systemic structural and cultural shifts to support equity at this scale takes an extensive amount of time and champions at the leadership level.
- Dedicated space and support for diverse engagement, collaboration, learning, and reflection (e.g., through convenings and in-person team time) is key.
- Using data to support dialogue and decision-making is a game changer for equity.
Download the CAGP Year Three Report and Get the Full Insights from Engage R+D