Multi-College Initiatives

CAGP supports participating community colleges in implementing guided pathways so they can substantially increase the number of students who earn postsecondary credentials and/or transfer with junior status. In 2016, College Futures Foundation partnered with NCII to select 20 colleges for CAGP 1.0. Additional support for this initial cohort came from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Teagle Foundation, and James Irvine Foundation. In 2020, College Futures and NCII launched CAGP 2.0 with 37 colleges, including 18 from the inaugural group and 19 new colleges.

NCII helps participating colleges approach guided pathways reform in ways that facilitate short-term academic success and long-term economic security and mobility for each student. We serve colleges through a mix of multi-day institutes, coaching, professional learning, and peer-to-peer support. In addition, we give teams a safe, facilitated space to share aspirations and address challenging elements of their redesign priorities.

This initiative seeks to scale IEBC’s Caring Campus approach to all five institutions in the Alamo Colleges District (TX). It will specifically help the colleges develop strategies for supporting new students and ensuring their retention through a critical point — the first two weeks of their first term. NCII is partnering with IEBC to integrate guided pathways, student financial stability, and career connections strategies with Caring Campus to strengthen student connectedness and belonging upon entry.

This project builds on the 2005 return on investment (ROI) modeling work originally conceived by NCII’s founder and president, Rob Johnstone, while working with the Research and Planning Group for California Community Colleges (RP Group). In its current form, we use the ROI framework and associated resources to help colleges model the potential impacts of guided pathways investments as well as noncredit-to-credit transitional career programs.

The Academy involves mid-level faculty, staff, and administrators (below the vice president level) in building their leadership capacity and supports colleges with succession planning. Through this year-long experience, participants strengthen leadership skills in the context of guided pathways redesign and work on a team-based project to apply those skills in practice. Combined, the training, ideas exchange, and peer support positions participants to drive transformation at their institutions focused on improving student experiences and outcomes.

Originally launched in 2019 through a partnership with the Ohio Association of Community Colleges’ Success Center (OACCSC) and the Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program, NCII expanded this effort in 2023 with support from the Ascendium Education Group, ECMC Foundation, and the Kresge Foundation. The Academy now involves cohorts in Ohio, Michigan, New York, and Texas, serving more than 150 Student Success Fellows each year.

Funded by the ECMC Foundation and led by the Michigan Center for Student Success, this project helped the state’s community colleges understand the wraparound service needs of their students and community; systematically integrate holistic supports into existing student services, with a focus on students experiencing financial insecurity; and share best practices across Michigan.

Working in partnership with the Michigan Community College Association, NCII provided student financial stability professional development, coaching, and resources. NCII helped guide colleges through periodic self-assessments so they could design, implement, and reflect on strategies to support students’ non-academic needs.

Working in partnership with the North Carolina Community College System’s Student Success Center (NCSSC), NCII provided hands-on sessions focused on operationalizing the ideas of equitable guided career pathways at participating colleges. Support emphasized designing for post-graduation success and making substantive changes in systems, structures, and practices that lead to improved economic mobility for more students and communities. NCII developed customized living-wage occupational data for regional markets across the state and consulted with nearly 20 individual institutions on applying this information to move from the status quo to redesigning students’ experiences at scale.

In this project, a national cohort of 16 rural community colleges are working with each other — and with community partners in their regions — to implement evidence-based, institution-wide reforms grounded in the guided pathways framework. The project is the first of its kind in two ways: It is the only pathways institute structure focused specifically on the needs of rural institutions, and it is the first time community partners are deeply embedded in pathways implementation.

NCII is directing this three-year project, which is funded by Ascendium Education Group with additional support from regional philanthropies. NCII is leading the effort to customize guided pathways curricula and structures for the rural context, with emphasis on building relationships with community partners working on workforce development, education, and basic needs.

Learn more about the Rural Guided Pathways Project.

The RLLC is a cohort of rural community college leaders who engage in professional development opportunities and explore innovative solutions to concerns that are unique to rural student success. Established in 2020, the RLLC involves a cross-functional group of 26 rural community college senior administrators from 25 states. Its members have deep on-the-ground expertise and a shared understanding of the rural context.

NCII launched the RLLC with funding from Ascendium Education Group. We recruited and invited rural college leaders and host regular convenings and webinars through which they explore common challenges and collectively address issues related to their redesign and institutional improvement efforts. The RLLC also created a series of briefs that explain rural colleges’ imperative to regain control of their regions’ talent pipelines, serve as engines of economic improvement, and thus provide opportunities for both individual upward mobility and regional stability.

NCII collaborates with WestEd’s Center for Economic Mobility to support its national Skills Builder initiative. This ongoing effort elevates the experience and outcomes of community college students who enroll for a short period, complete a limited number of career-oriented courses, and translate this coursework into additional earnings.

NCII provides technical assistance to colleges to identify common course combinations for specific career technical programs and determine what these courses position students to do next – both educationally and occupationally. This approach helps colleges with (1) program (re)design to better serve this important and often misunderstood population, and (2) advances efforts to articulate the value proposition for enrollment in these discrete course combinations as well as engagement with full programs of study.