NEWS
I
CCC paves path for students
O
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B
CLACKAMAS
PRINT
BY JEANETTE WRIGHT
NEWS EDITOR ‘
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Twelve percent of first-tim e students
at Clackamas Community College don’t
succeed in any of their classes in their
first term. Thirty percent of first-tim e
students don’t return for a second term
in winter, and by the end of two years,
tw enty-four percent don’t complete a
degree certificate or transfer. Overall,
thirty-five percent of students drop out.
These student success rates at CCC from
Fall 2014 to Spring 2016 have shocked
the college, which is now taking steps to
remedy the problem with the new Guided
Pathways plaai.
“ With that twelve percent non-success
rate, that means that we are not doing
our jobs to serve our students,” CCC’ s
Director o f Institutional Research and
Report, Lisa Anh Wang said.
Guided Pathways is a program composed
o f four differen t sections: N avigate
softw are, a p re-co llege p ip elin e, a
curriculum workgroup and a collaborative
workgroup. All these components Work
together to help students successfully
navigate their college courses and stay
on track.
“ Guided pathways are to students
w hat GPS system s are to d rivers,”
C C C ’ s Dean of Academic Foundations
and Connections, Tara Sprelie said. “ Your
GPS system gives you a the quickest, route
to your destination but also provides other
options. It supports you along the way,
giving you friendly directions when you;
need to turn. If you get lost, it helps you
get back on track, ” Sprehe said.
The Oregon Student Success Center
offered spots to five Oregon community
colleges to participate in the first group
of Oregon colleges implementing Guided
Pathways. Along with the Chem eketa,
Lane, Rogue and Southwestern community
colleges,- CCC was chosen in March to be
a part o f that group. C C C ’ s long-term
implementation plan for Guided Pathways
goes through the 2022-’23 school year
Guided Pathways will bring together
all the best areas o f student support
advising, course offerings and scheduling
and faculty involvement. “ It’s really about
creating pathways so our students are
spending less time trying to figure out
the different systems and nuances, as
opposed to just focusing on ‘ steps a, b
and c’ ,” Wang said.
Navigate will help incoming students
Editorial
get connected with the CCC system, help
students find a focus area and provide
notifications and checklists for tasks and
deadlines.
Knowing what to do in the first term
of college is important to both student
success and makes students more likely
to continue.
“ That first term that students are here
is really critical,’’ Wang said. “ If students
are not succeeding during that first term,
then we’re doing a great injustice to our
students,” Wang said.
Helping students know what classes to
take and when will help reduce student
expenses and debt...
The educational focus areas CCC decides
on will group together classes shared by
different majors and offer more general
introductory courses sooner to keep
students from having to start completely
over if they change their focus.
“ We want to make sure that students
don’t end up taking a lot of credits that
don’t actually get them down [their]
p a th ,” said Dawn H endricks, CCC’ s
Departm ent Chair of Education and
Human Services. “ We know that student
debt is a huge issue, and students are
graduating with more sredits than they
actually need,” Hendricks said.
Hendricks is co-chair of the Guided
Pathw ays group,, along w ith Eboni
Frederick-Pettway.
“ ft’s a big shift in a lot of the things
that we do and operate to make sure that
we are providing services that students
need,” Wang said.
Feeling connected and engaged is a huge
factor in student success, and Hendricks
hopes that encouraging involvement in
clubs and extracurricular activities Will
be part of the Guided Pathways program
at CCC.
“ Typically,, student athletes have a
higher com pletion rate [than other
students] because they’re going through
the program as a cohort,” Hendricks said. 5
“ They often have more access to these
academic supports.”
Having coaches, advisors and teachers
paying attention to not only that students
are doing the work, but how they are doing
it is a large part of providing^tudent
support.
“ Engagement is a strong influence on
students remaining at the institution,
ON THE COVER:
CORRECTION:
On the cover is TCP Roleplaying Game.by Jared Preble-
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and persisting at the college,” Wang said.
“ So, with the clubs and extracurricular
activities we want to integrate that with
instruction, so that we are engaging
students throughout their entire career
here at the college.”
An “ early alert” system will be put in
place to let teachers know how students
are doing, making it easier to notice a
student struggling to succeed.
Getting faculty and staff to be more'
involved in interacting with the students
outside o f strictly coursework helps
students feel more invested in their work.
“ W ith th is , level o f engagem ent,
students feel like they are not just a butt
in the seat,” Wang said. “ They have these
long-term goals and this is one of the
stepping stones towards that long-term
goal.”
CCC’s faculty are excited about Guided
Pathways, and the ways it can help change
CCC for the' better.
“ We, as an institution at Clackamas,
have so m uch great work that w e’re
doing, and what I’m looking forward to
is bringing them together so that they
work in a really synchronous kind of way,”
Wang said.
CCC faculty will meet with the rest
of the involved community colleges in
May to discuss progress and plans for
the future im plem entation of Guided
Pathways.
Editors-in-Chief
Autumn Berend
chiefed@c1ackamas.edu
Managing Editor
Ian Van Or den
chiefed@clackamas.edu
Copy Editor
Victoria Durling
copyed@clackamas.edu*
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Jeanette Wright
newsed@daGkamas.edu
Arts & Culture Editor
Jared Preble
aced@clackarrias.edu
Sports Editor
Jacob Thompson.
sportsgd@dackamas.edu
Photo Editor
. Jonathan Villagomez
photoed@clackamas.edu
Multimedia Editor
Summer Barraza
webeditor@clnckamas.edu
Ad & Design Editor
William Farris
admgr@dackamas.edu
Photo by Mason Crawley
Contributors
Greyson Mbock
CD
C
Mason Crawley
Robert Sanders
e
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Navigate opens to students in the summer
Last week In the male sexual assault article we misattributed
the website RAINN.org. In a caption on page 8 we misspelled
Grayson Fenwicks name.
u
CD
Adviser
Crystal Kang
crystal.kang@clackamas.edu
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April 25, 2018