Student Pathways

Student Pathways Perhaps it is time for a change in defining educational goal

Currently we ask… • SM01 Goals • SM02 Major • SM03 Special Services Needs • SM04 Orientation –Exempt –Status • SM05 Assessment –Exempt –Status • SM06 Counseling/Advisement –Exempt Status • SM07 Orientation -Services • SM08 Assessment –Servs-Placement

Perhaps we could ask • What brings you to our college? • What experience/education do you have? • Can you tell us about yourself, so we can better meet your needs? • Can you afford our programs (some are free)? • How can we guide you along one of the following pathways….

Which Path Describes You? • Explorer – I am new to college or still trying to find the right college for me. • Scholar – I am successfully on my way toward a certificate, degree or transfer program. • Skills Builder – I am interested in developing my workplace skills and certifications.

Each College can choose how to • Tell students what the pathway looks like, who they will find on it and how your college views or supports students on this path. • Identify cohorts for interventions and deliver just in time services to just those students. • Use milestones appropriate for each pathway to measure alignment and success.

Explorer This is Bahr’s cluster of least-likely-to-succeed students. About half make it to the other pathways. This is where students search and discover. They also need the most help to find out how they can leverage college to meet their goals. Here is where we assess and inventory, develop awareness with college readiness and non-credit programs.

Explorer milestones • Completion of below college coursework to college level in the same subject • Completion of non-credit to credit in same… • Returning to college after a dropped year • Achieving good academic standing • Meeting the criteria for either Scholar or Skills Builder pathways

Scholar • These are the first time freshmen on a degree or transfer track. • We can determine a unit threshold, like ARCC, to put students into the cohort. We tell them to “get into this club, you must…” • Complete college readiness, attempt college math and English • Declare a major and maintain good academic standing • Imagine….

Current MIS Codes for Ed Goal • A Obtain an AA degree and transfer to a 4-year institution • B Transfer to a 4-year institution without an AA degree • C Obtain a two year associate's degree without transfer • D Obtain a two year vocational degree without transfer • E Earn a vocational certificate without transfer • F Discover / formulate career interests, plans, goals • G Prepare for a new career (acquire job skills) • H Advance in current job / career (update job skills) • I Maintain certificate or license (e.g. Nursing, Real Estate) • J Educational development (intellectual, cultural) • K Improve basic skills in English, reading or math • L Complete credits for high school diploma or GED • M Undecided on goal • N To move from noncredit coursework to credit coursework • O 4-year college student taking courses to meet 4-year college requirements • X Uncollected / unreported • Y Not applicable

One Way to Map Pathways in MIS • Imagine a two letter code for ed goal • The first character represents the PATHWAY • A for Scholars, B for Skills Builders, C for Explorers • The second character remains the same as our previous ed goals • The following is an example. We can debate the final coding later.

Possible New Codes for Ed Goal • AA Obtain an AA degree and transfer to a 4-year institution • AB Transfer to a 4-year institution without an AA degree • AC Obtain a two year associate's degree without transfer • AD Obtain a two year vocational degree without transfer • The top four goals could be mapped to the Scholar Pathway • These four goals have been combined in prior research on transfer

Possible New Codes for Ed Goal • BE Earn a vocational certificate without transfer • BF Discover / formulate career interests, plans, goals • BG Prepare for a new career (acquire job skills) • BH Advance in current job / career (update job skills) • BI Maintain certificate or license (e.g. Nursing, Real Estate) • The next five goals could be mapped to the Skills Builder Pathway • These have also been combined in prior research on vocational outcomes

Possible New Codes for Ed Goal • The remaining choices could be combined under the Explorer Pathway • Obviously, we can decide on other ways to map or combine but that’s a debate for later • CJ Educational development (intellectual, cultural) • CK Improve basic skills in English, reading or math • CL Complete credits for high school diploma or GED • CM Undecided on goal • CN To move from noncredit coursework to credit coursework • CO 4-year college student taking courses to meet 4-year college requirements • CX Uncollected / unreported • CY Not applicable

Now… back to the Scholar Pathway

Scholar milestones • Completion of college level math • Completion of college level English • Completion of college level science • Transferable Course success rate >70% • Completes 30 units or 7 cont. primary terms • Attends fulltime (percent taking 11+ units)

Skills Builder • Completed 8+ units in CTE or job-related courses • Course success rate >70% • Many of these students start as Explorers • Some overlap with college readiness and developmental education is okay

Skills Builder milestones • Certifications • Gainful Employment

What would implementation look like?

Colleges Can Choose • Some colleges will want to give different names to pathways. That’s okay. • Some colleges will want to continue using the old ed goals, and we can accommodate that • Some colleges may choose to use web tools to assist students in identifying/selecting a path • Some colleges could align student pathways across the institution

One Way to Go • Imagine a college that asks thoughtful questions to help ‘triage’ or direct students to the pathways and support services they need • Students and Faculty identify with these pathways and provide momentum to achieve high rates of success for their milestones • College makes visible: “Are you on track?”

Let Students Self Select a Path • Ask them to choose a pathway every term • When they register, ask: “Last term you were on XX pathway, are you still on this pathway, or do you need to make a change?” • The choice can be three to five* pathways that we can easily code and report in MIS • We may add pathways for non-credit or lifelong learning depending on the final debate

Then we compare • We can compare students’ course taking behavior with the path they say they are on. • Based on students’ chosen pathways and the additional information we collect specific to each student… age, gender, SES, academic preparedness, first generation status, etc…

We will have better data • We can research students’ declared pathway versus the students’ behavior. • Better than that, we can effectively measure specific milestones for each pathway. Smaller successes captured and less blur in metrics. • Instead of an ‘ed goal’ as we now collect it, we can determine if a student’s choices and behavior align AND if she met a milestone.

We can do two amazing things • We can provide targeted support services to each student based on the alignment between what they say and what they do. • We can measure success based on milestones that are appropriate. This could become a report card for the student AND an aggregated success indicator for the institution.

In closing • My biggest concern is that we ask students for all sorts of data, most often for our own purposes and many students know this. • For once, let’s ask the student something that MATTERS to THEM, and actually USE it to direct them towards successful support services, rather than check a box and use it for “research.”

Thank You Marc Beam Director, Research and Planning Shasta College

Student Pathways