Supporting Guided Pathways in Michigan: Lessons Learned from Cohort 1
Fall 2017
In 2014, the Michigan Center for Student Success, with funding from The Kresge Foundation, introduced a Guided Pathways initiative. A total of 23 colleges participated in two cohorts, with the 12 colleges in Cohort I kicking off their work in early 2015 and continuing through June 2016. The colleges received technical assistance from the Community College Research Center, the National Center for Inquiry and Improvement, and Public Agenda at a series of Guided Pathways Institutes. In June2016 theCohort I colleges completed a self-assessment of their progress toward implementing critical features of guided pathways. All of the colleges exhibited progress in all four of the key practice areas. To learn more about the factors that may have influenced this progress, MCSS commissioned a researcher to conduct a qualitative study focused on how implementation was supported by the institutions themselves, technical assistance provided through MCSS, and cross-college collaboration. The report, which will be featured at the 2017 Student Success Summit, identifies facilitating conditions and supports within institutions, significant aspects of the support provided by MCSS, and barriers and challenges that colleges faced in implementing the initiative.
Institutional Supports and Facilitators
According to study participants, the primary institutional facilitator was the extent to which guided pathways built upon and expandedwork that was already underway,providing an umbrella under which to coordinate ongoing efforts. Participants also cited the importance of a culture of evidence and innovation, collaboration between the academic and student services sides of the house, and supportive and engaged leadership as strong enabling factors for successful implementation.
Support from MCSS
While the colleges were already pursuing a variety of student success strategies on their own, MCSS helped push those efforts to the next levelby creating a coordinated effort around guided pathways. According to the Cohort I team members, the support provided by the MCSS fell into three broad categories: MCSS as an accelerator of change, MCSS as a technical assistance provider, and MCSS as a facilitator of cross-college collaboration.
Implementation Barriers and Challenges
The most common challenge reported was building campus wide support, particularly among the faculty. Barriers to building support includedthe generalinnovation fatigue along with concerns specific to guided pathways, including fear of negative student impacts. Colleges were also challenged by developing viable program maps and pathwaysalong with logistical difficulties managing an initiative with so many wide-ranging components. When the interviews for this study were completed, the Cohort I colleges had almost two years of experience implementing guided pathways and, looking back, had a wealth of knowledge to share about their experiences with guided pathways in general and with the MCSS in particular. However, most also recognized that there was still much work to be done and that they would continue to need support from the MCSS moving forward.
Michigan Center for Student Success
The Michigan Center for Student Success is an initiative of the Michigan Community College Association. Founded in 2011 with a generous grant from the The Kresge Foundation, MCSS provides state-level support to Michigan’s 28 community colleges by serving as a hub connecting leadership, administrators, faculty, and staff in their emerging and ongoing efforts to improve student outcomes, emphasizing linkages between practice, research, and policy. Visit our website at for additional information. Please cite this publication by using: Coleman, D. (March, 2017).Supporting Guided Pathways: Lessons Learned from Cohort I. Lansing, Michigan: Michigan Center for Student Success.