The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) have announced the launch of a two-year project to shape institutional capacity and clarify pathways for degree completion and to ensure student learning at community colleges.
The project, “Strengthening Guided Pathways and Career Success by Ensuring Students Are Learning” is supported by funding from the Ascendium Education Group and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Dr. Lynn Pasquerella“Ensuring that educational quality and college completion are inextricably linked is more critical than ever. We are grateful to our supporters for their help in advancing AAC&U’s initiatives around pathways to student success,” said AAC&U president Dr. Lynn Pasquerella.
AAC&U will partner with the University of Texas at Austin’s Center for Community College Student Engagement to work with 20 community colleges around the country to shape institutional capacity and develop resources that will help schools strengthen their efforts to reinforce that students are learning, according to an AAC&U release.
“I am excited to be working with AAC&U. Both organizations, the Center for Community College Student Engagement and AAC&U, have studied and worked in the space of effective teaching practices, but this is a new narrative as we look through the lens of guided pathways and learn what colleges are doing and want to do,” said Dr. Evelyn N. Waiwaiole, executive director of the Center for Community College Student Engagement at The University of Texas at Austin.
The Guided Pathways project has four key practice areas: mapping pathways to student end goals; helping students choose and enter a program pathway; keeping students on path; and ensuring that students are learning.
