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Capstone Paper
Sean S. Adams
IDSL 835
Ferris State University

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Introduction

Adams State College has made the development of educational pathways for all students
a strategic planning objective in their revised Strategic Plan for the 2012 through 2018 academic
years. The Adams State College Strategic Plan is built around the mission of, Empowering
learners to achieve their lifelong and career learning goals, strengthening the community and
inspiring others to excellence. This mission statement is crafted on three central themes;
learning, community and excellence. The development of educational pathways is significantly
linked to the learning element in the mission of the institution and is also supported by the
Adams State College Vision Statement of, To provide an outlet for lifelong success through
continuous support and development of educational and community building opportunities. The
values of Adams State College are closely associative of the mission and vision. Adams State
College values include;

Learning through a commitment to continuous improvement,

People by creating a caring and inclusive environment for learners,

Community by providing facilities and activities for civic improvement, and

Excellence through the provision of educational and community services that enriches
lives and inspires others.
As a medium enrollment college in northern Michigan, Adams State College has a

mission, vision and values that are narrowly focused on the needs of the surrounding region.
A region of rural poverty and chronic academic underachievement, the development of
strategic pathways, although closely linked to learning as previously noted, provides an
opportunity for the institution to impact both the vision and core values through a

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commitment to continuous improvement, fostering a supportive atmosphere for learners and

inspiring other to excellence through realization of their lifelong learning and career goals.
Strategically aligned to be realized through their mission, vision and values; the development
of educational pathways is a core objective of the Adams State College Strategic Plan.
Strategic Issue
The movement from fragmented course-taking to clear, coherent educational pathways
was listed as a key recommendation for reimaging the community college in the landmark report,
Reclaiming the American Dream: A Report from the 21st-Century Commission on the Future of
Community Colleges (American Association of Community Colleges, 2012). Although
strategically placed in this report as key recommendation for improvement on a national level,
several key factors drove the decision to make educational pathways a strategic objective
through the Adams College Strategic Planning process. These factors included:

Performance based funding legislation that compensates community colleges for student
success in achieving their intended learning outcomes,

An semi-autonomous community college state system with little state-level coordination

of transfer equivalencies or transfer policies between institutions of higher learning,

Low levels of institutional completion rates for intended learning outcomes, and

Low utilization of student support services.

Recently, state legislation has been passed into law that alters funding to community

colleges from that of a head-count, per-pupil basis to a modified formula that is based on a perpupil and achievement formula in obtaining progress toward intended learning outcomes.
Simplified, this shift in funding no longer rewards learners in the classroom, but rather learners

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in the classroom who progress toward their declared learning outcome. The network of colleges
and universities in the state operate in a semi-autonomous environment. In Michigan, colleges
and universities are governed by independently elected and appointed boards, have the power to
tax locally, and are only accountable to the state through attainment of accreditation. This
complex web of higher learning institutions creates a menagerie of transfer difficulties that often
prohibits students from realizing their learning outcomes as they are ill prepared to navigate this
diverse environment. Another diving force for educational pathways is low levels of completion
rate for current learning outcomes. Currently, learners do not officially declare their intended
learning outcomes, and through no fault of their own, too often fall short of these outcomes due
to a perceived lack of support services provided by the institutions. The notion that, If learners
do not tell us what they need, how can we provide it? has penetrated the campus culture from
both learners and faculty/staff. In support of this notion are low levels of participation in student
support activities. Few students take advantage of traditional student support activities, with less
than 40% meeting an academic advisor annually. Further, there has been little innovation in the
development of non-traditional student support activities as campus leadership has been reluctant
to support these (perceived) needs without a clear demand from students.
It has become apparent that Adams State College must operationalize its revised strategic
objectives if the institution wishes to stay fiscally soluble and provide the community with an
institution to learn and grow. As the performance based funding formula is implemented over the
next four years, data from the Adams College finance and development offices indicate that the
institution could lose up to 25% of its current state funding if fails to show student success in
obtaining their declared learning outcomes. Further, added scrutiny is being placed on
community college level coursework by traditional four-year universities who feel students from

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state colleges do not have the perquisite skills for academic success. Also, complexity in transfer
equivalencies continues to be a persistent problem for community college students. College
leadership has also been reluctant to fund innovative support services without evidence of need
or utilization. The cumulative effect of these forces threatens to undermine the core mission and
values of the institution and have propelled the development of educational pathways to the
forefront of the strategic planning process.
Planning Process
Step One: Define
The state, through their revised funding allocation structure, has initiated the first step in
the planning process by defining what constitutes as an educational pathway. The educational
pathways used by the state (credential seeking, transfer seeking, continuing education,
developmental education) have shifted the next step of the institution to look within itself in
determining how to structure academic and student services operations around these pathways.
The timing for step one is immediate.
Step Two: Evaluate Current Activities
This step in the planning process begins broadly with all units of the institution working
collaboratively to identify all points of learning and student services currently provided. A highly
inclusive step, each and every point in which learning or support occurs must be identified and
noted to gain a true sense of what the intuition is currently doing. This step should be
operationalized in departments, divisions, and sub-groups by appropriate leadership at all levels
to ensure that every element of operations is accounted for in a learning/support sense. The
timing for step two should conclude within a two/three month period.

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Step Three: Evaluation of Current Activities

Once a comprehensive study has been undertaken with all members of the college
community in defining where and how student learning and support occurs, these findings should
be composed in format that will provide divisional, departmental and executive leadership with a
true representation of current activities. These activities should then be further defined by their
cost, utilization rate, frequency, staff resource allocation, and other measures that will accurately
depict the potential cost/benefit of these activities. Composition and analysis of step three should
conclude within three to six months of step two completions. Total time: four months (approx.)
Step Four: Defining what we need
What we need may seem analogous in some respects, but defining the resources needed
for student success must be a vast exercise in engaging the many stakeholders of the community
college environment; locally and nationally. Beginning locally the college should engage its
current students in what support services they feel are needed to provide them with an enhanced
opportunity succeed in achieving their educational goals. Student focus groups, SWOT analyses,
community surveys, and alumni engagement should all be included to provide primary source
accounts of actual needs from students.
On the same level as students, the faculty/staff that create the learning environment and
provide student services should be consulted in what they feel is needed to support educational
success in the pathways approach to learning. As practitioners in the field, these groups will
provide highly reliable operational data that will be highly localized to the needs of the
institution itself, much like those of the students.

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The next most significant resource in defining what strategies are successful in
supporting student learning through pathways should be practitioners and researches in the field
of community/higher educational scholarship. What have other institutions done in this regard?
How do these models compare? What seems to work/doesnt from an institutional perspective?
These are the types of questions that should be raised when engaging other institutions in regard
to their experiences with pathways. Data is available from numerous, highly reliable academic
researchers and community college organizations that will provide valuable insight into the
needs of students, success of support services and generally, what works and what doesnt from
research. Academics and professional organizations should be thoroughly consulted at the same
level of importance as the current/past student body.
Finally, the greater community should be engaged through focus groups, interviews, and
forum presentations on what is needed to support learning from their perspective. The
community in this regard is defined in a broad sense as this group may make up community
members, vendors, businesses, non-profits, and other bodies of individuals and organizations
commonly found outside of the boundaries of the institution. Integral to engagement of these
populations are those that have the ability to provide learning or support services that may be
available in some form to the institution in support of the learning pathways initiative. This step
in the process in forecasted to be highly exhaustive with an anticipated time fame of six months
to one year. Total time: one year (approx.)
Step Five: Putting it all together
At this stage in the strategic planning process, institutional leadership should have ample
data on the issue, where they stand currently, what is needed, and strategies for achieving their

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goal. This stage could jointly be considered a strategy review and adoption stage of the the
process. At this stage, a coherent set of recommendations should be localized based on study
data that can be implemented at the college. With the consultation of departmental and divisional
leadership, the final product should arrive as a recommendation to the Board of Directors by the
President of the College for formal approval. Final approval of this stage of the process would be
three to six months. The time: one and one half years (approx.)
Step Six: Implementations & Measurement
Formal operationalization of the plan along with measurement of the KPIs or designated
performance metrics is the highlight of step six of the strategic process. Where the rubber meets
the road is a generic slang term that may be described at this point. Fully realizing the
educational pathways approach along with clear measures and indicators of success/failure
should be available for evaluation and re-assessment at varying intervals. The time: two years
(approx.)
Step Seven: Evaluation and Re-assessment
Evaluation and re-assessment of strategic objectives and overall goal attainment should
happen on a quarterly, annual or bi-annual basis as deemed appropriate by collegiate leadership.
The focus of this step is application of the measures associated with the strategic objectives
relative to the attainment of the strategic goal. In taking into account the micro measures and
techniques used to operationalize the strategic goal, leader should gain a sense of macro
accomplishments through this stage. Areas of underachievement should be recognized and
strategies altered or new strategies developed to achieve the strategic objectives set-forth. This

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stage of the process is continual in nature and should be realized at specific intervals throughout
the duration of the Adams College Strategic Plan.
Initiatives & Measures
Strategic initiative: Require all students in credential seeking, transfer, and developmental
education pathways participate in academic advising.
Metric: All (100%) of students in the required pathways participate in academic advising within
two years.
This strategic initiative will allow academic advisors the opportunity to review the history
of the learner, intended educational outcome and guide the learner through the institution in an
attempt to satisfy the stated educational outcome. This will support the goal of establishing the
educational pathway and offer opportunities to take advantage of support services. The data
identified will be found by placing a hold on all students registration forms prior to enrollment
in classes for the given semester. Appointments with academic advisors will be solicited
throughout the academic year and once completed, clearance for registration will be given. This
would be reviewed in the quarterly or bi-annual evaluation and re-assessment stage of the
planning process.
Strategic initiative: Require all students in credential seeking, transfer, and developmental
education pathways participate in one or more student support service/activity (in addition to
academic advising).
Metric: All (100%) of students in the required pathways participate in student support activities
(in addition to academic advising) within two years.

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This strategic initiative will require all students in the preceding educational pathways to
participate in some student support service outside of academic advising. Through this
participation students will be exposed to the student services offered, expand their learning
opportunities through participation and become an active part of the greater campus community.
Like the academic advising requirement, data identified will be found by placing a hold on all
students registration forms prior to enrollment in classes for the given semester. This will
facilitate the People and Community Core Values as well as the strategic objective of academic
pathways. This would be reviewed in the quarterly or bi-annual evaluation and re-assessment
stage of the planning process.
Strategic initiative: Provide students with a suggested educational pathway through academic
advising.
Metric: Require two of the following forms of educational history of 100% of students within
two years. Forms: High school transcript, standardized test scores, collegiate transcript, armed
forced service record, entrance testing (in-house), or other aptitude/character form.
In order to prepare students for the appropriate educational pathway, proper placement is
required as judged through academic performance measures. These measures can come from a
variety of sources that will assist in judging potential academic success. Two measures must be
used of all students and data will be collected through admissions that require these forms of
testing upon admission. Simply put, if they are admitted, we met the measure and we were
successful in obtaining this initiative measure for the student. This would be reviewed in the
quarterly or bi-annual evaluation and re-assessment stage of the planning process.

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Strategic initiative: Provide a diverse range of student support services tailored to the needs of
the local community.
Metric: Create three new student services programs in each of the first three years of the
strategic plan.
Development of student support services that will directly support student learning
outcomes is will be a hallmark of this strategic objective. Not only will Adams College help
place and advise learners on the proper educational pathway, support designed for each pathway
will provided. An example of one such support service will be the Adams Institute which has
specialists in developmental education available for tutoring students. Designed primarily for
developmental students, yet open to all, the Adams Institute support services will be designed
upon local needs and reflective of the mission of learning and excellence. This initiative will be
measured by the number of support programs added to the college annually over a three year
time frame. This would be reviewed in the annual evaluation and re-assessment stage of the
planning process.
Reflection
Development of educational pathways is foreseen as an activity that community colleges
around the nation will have implemented or seriously considered in the following years. The
emphasis on access and success along with increasing accountability and diminished financial
resources will be factors driving the consideration of educational pathways. Educational
pathways have the potential to allow students tailored classroom environments that are suited to
their stated educational outcomes, facilitating the institution and instructor to provide coursework
that will be reflective of both the students learning capacity and relationship to intended learning

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outcomes. Learning environments for students seeking transfer to state universities can be
tailored and staffed as such, and likewise, classrooms for those seeking developmental education
can be conducted by professionals who specialize in such.
The Development of educational pathways in any college or university is a massive
undertaking. All of the campus community who support student learning and services must be
involved in the strategic planning process. From the administration, admissions representatives,
enrollment and guidance staff, faculty, to support services representatives, all units engaged in
learning and support must participate in this process for student and institution success to be
realized. As if participation is not a large enough obstacle, the segregation and development of
educator and support services roles is sure to create controversy on campus between various
departments and services. The perspective that those who deliver learning and support to some
groups rather than others is sure to drive stigmatization and resentment amongst the faculty and
staff. Time and resources are also significant obstacles that must be considered. It will take a
great amount of time and resources to implement this process and leadership must be cognizant
that this process will not manifest itself instantly. Potential liabilities aside, the development of
educational pathways is a theme that many institutions will implement or consider implementing
in the near future. It is my belief that these pathways and directed support services is critical to
achieving the balanced goals of access and success in the future American community college
system of education.

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References

American Association of Community Colleges. (2012). Reclaiming the American Dream: A

report from the 21st-Century Commission on the Future of Community Colleges (p. 56).
Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://www.aacc.nche. edu/21stCenturyReport