Guided Pathways

The California Guided Pathways Project

The primary goal of the project is to implement an integrated, institution-wide approach to student success that guides each student from their point of entry to the completion of their educational goal. To this end, the Guided Pathways framework focuses on the following Four Pillars.

• Clarify the Path
• Enter the Path
• Stay on the Path
• Ensure Learning

The implication here is that community colleges in California need to examine existing institutional frameworks and rearrange them if needed so that we can "provide students with clear, educationally coherent program maps that include specific course sequences, progress milestones, and program learning outcomes."

Guided Pathways at City: A Year of Inquiry

Our approach to this immense project is to start with structured inquiry.  It is indeed a unique opportunity to honestly and openly reexamine how effectively we have been serving our students, especially the student populations that are most disproportionately affected by educational inequity.  As such, San Diego City College has decided to dedicate the first year of the Guided Pathways to conducting various inquiry projects, so that we can effectively identify institutional processes and structures that we may potentially redesign to reach their full potential in serving our students. Due to the possibility that some service areas may encounter significant institutional shifts in terms of norms and practices, our focus also is to ensure that the decision-making processes regarding the Guided Pathways project is as inclusive and deliberative as possible. The structure and the membership of the Guided Pathways committee deliberately reflects this principle. 

What Guided Pathways is not...

Guided Pathways is not another initiative where we are mandated to apply a template of institutional redesign plans provided by the State Chancellor's office.  There is no one way to do this!

Guided Pathways is not designed to limit the existing faculty purview over the 10+1 domains.  Given the integrated nature of the Guided Pathways framework, it requires the active participation of both instructional and counseling faculty (as well as the management and classified professional staff) more than ever!

Guided Pathways does not have to eliminate students' ability to explore academically.  If fact, some colleges have considered "a path to explore" as one of the pathways. 

Guided Pathways is not opposition to the original CCC mission of access. 

If you have any questions/comments/concerns, please contact Dr. Susan Murray, Dean of Institutional Effectiveness or Cristina Carrillo, Guided Pathways Faculty Coordinator.