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Washington State Institute for Public Policy

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Guided Pathways: Preliminary Report on Implementation and Student Outcomes
Open Publication PDF

Julia Cramer, Colin Gibson, Chasya Hoagland - March 2024

Guided Pathways is a whole-college reform framework designed to help students in community and technical colleges choose academic paths and earn credentials or transfer on time. The 2021 Legislature directed WSIPP to conduct an evaluation of the implementation of Guided Pathways in Washington, identify evidence of its effectiveness, and examine student outcomes.

For this preliminary report, we surveyed community and technical colleges in Washington to understand early implementation of Guided Pathways. Thirty-three out of 34 colleges responded to our survey and reported implementing Guided Pathways to some extent.

We observed similarities in implementation across colleges, but overall, Guided Pathways varies from college to college. Many colleges started with mapping initiatives and added advising reforms. It was common for colleges to implement multiple initiatives together, particularly mapping, advising, and student support activities. Colleges reported increased collaboration after beginning Guided Pathways but noted that the COVID-19 pandemic, staff capacity, and data system changes all presented challenges to implementing reforms. Colleges also reported needing ongoing funding to support future Guided Pathways work.

We also received data from the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges to examine student outcomes. We observed trends in retention, course completion, credit accumulation, and GPA outcomes for students in Guided Pathways (GP) and non-GP colleges (non-GP) between 2015 and 2019. These outcomes increased for students in both GP and non-GP colleges over time, and any differences between college groups were small. We cannot say if differences are due to Guided Pathways, other programs, college factors, or student populations. To date, there are no evaluations that demonstrate Guided Pathways’ causal impact on student outcomes.

WSIPP will publish a final report focusing on long-term student outcomes like degree completion, four-year institution transfer rates, employment, and earnings in December 2029.

Download:   Report    Executive Summary  
Related:
Legislation