"About 10 years ago, the guided pathways movement got its user's manual. Redesigning America's Community Colleges, by Thomas Bailey, Shanna Smith Jaggars and Davis Jenkins of the Community College Research Center at Columbia University's Teachers College, was a sustained and well-received brief in favor of community colleges moving away from a "cafeteria" or "food court" model and toward a "guided pathways" model."
"The idea was that the quasi-libertarian view that more choice is invariably good didn't match the reality of most students' lives; in fact, most students crave direction. Without clear direction, the argument went, students often flounder. They take credits that won't transfer, get lost in remediation or drop out because they don't see the point. Colleges should streamline their offerings-especially in remediation-and ensure that students get on pathways quickly and stay on them."
"To its considerable credit, the CCRC has subjected its own recommendations to empirical study. Now, with the benefit of 10 years' worth of data, it has issued a follow-up. More Essential Than Ever, by Davis Jenkins, Hana Lahr, John Fink, Serena Klempin and Maggie Fay, looks closely at what happened as colleges implemented the recommendations of the earlier book. (Jenkins co-authored both the original and the follow-up.)"
About ten years ago a manual promoted shifting community colleges from a 'cafeteria' or 'food court' model to a 'guided pathways' model. The model argued that excessive choice often hinders students and that many students crave clear direction. Without clear direction students take credits that won't transfer, get lost in remediation, or drop out. Colleges were urged to streamline offerings, scrutinize remedial courses, adopt meta-majors, and help students enter and stay on pathways. A research center later subjected these recommendations to empirical study using ten years of data to examine implementation outcomes. The later analysis also examined developments such as dual enrollment, short semesters, and support for students' basic needs.
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