Every student deserves the opportunity to excel in college and career.

WestEd provides expertise on effective practices and transition strategies focusing on secondary education, community colleges, universities, adult education, and workforce development.

Throughout the month of August, we are highlighting college and career pathways that make college more accessible for students, provide effective support, and prepare them for careers that match both their interests and the specific needs of their communities.

Greater Access, Greater Equity

California College Promise is an overarching framework for improving college affordability, access, and completion. Well-designed College Promise programs incentivize college enrollment, persistence, and completion by offering financial, academic, and other support services to students based on where they live or attend school.

California College Promise is more than a mechanism for student financial support. The program represents a pact between students and their communities in which education, government, business, philanthropy, and community partners collaborate to create a system of supports and services to improve college affordability, access, and completion for all students.

Clear, Manageable Pathways

To address barriers to completion, Carnegie Math Pathways (CMP) provides community colleges with an alternative to traditional remedial math. With two math courses – Statway and Quantway – CMP is reshaping and accelerating paths to completion.

Studies show students in Statway and Quantway not only complete their introductory college math requirements at triple the rate of their peers, but go on to transfer and graduate at significantly higher rates.

Reducing the Labor Gap

Leaders from the San Diego and Imperial Counties Community Colleges Association recently launched an initiative to reform the college experience, offering students clear pathways to completion that will prepare them for “middle and high-skill, high-wage, and high-demand jobs that require education and training beyond high school, but don’t necessarily require a four-year college degree.”

Perkins V Professional Learning

The recent reauthorization of the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V) means that states have greater opportunities to shape career and technical education programs according to regional workforce needs.

Join us on September 12, from 10am to 11:30am, for a webinar that will look at how the Nevada Department of Education is managing the transition to Perkins V.

Register to learn what tools and strategies they are using to support their efforts. 

Resources

Check out the following list of resources for insights into college success and career pathways.

College Promise Campaign

Carnegie Math Pathways

Multiple Paths Forward: Diversifying Mathematics as a Strategy for College Success

Leveraging Strong Workforce Funding to Build an Innovative Infrastructure: How Community Colleges Take a Regional Approach to Guided Pathways in the San Diego and Imperial Region

The Strong Workforce Program

The California Guided Pathways Project

The Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V)

For more information about college pathways and career success at WestEd: