This analytics guide introduces the Community College Program Mapper, a practical data tool designed to help colleges understand which of their students are—and are not—on a clear path to post-completion success. Colleges load student-level enrollment data into a prebuilt Excel workbook that generates interactive treemaps, bar graphs, and tables showing:
- How students are distributed across program tracks classified by post-completion value.
- Which programs clearly lead to living-wage employment or major-specific transfer.
- Where large numbers of students are enrolled in low- or unclear-value pathways.
- How many new and continuing students have an individualized educational plan.
The tool makes visible patterns that are often difficult to see in standard enrollment reports. In many colleges where it has been used, the tool reveals large concentrations of students in general-studies transfer and competitive-admission pre-selection tracks, short-term workforce programs, dual enrollment, and noncredit programs—areas where relatively few students have a structured, goal-aligned plan. Helping these students develop individualized, goal-aligned plans may be the most underused retention strategy in community colleges today.
The guide also outlines five high-leverage strategies that correspond to particular program value areas where strengthening educational planning can have the greatest impact. Examined in more depth in CCRC’s book, More Essential Than Ever: Community College Pathways to Educational and Career Success, the strategies help more students choose, plan, and complete pathways that lead to strong employment and transfer outcomes. The guide outlines how to use the tool as part of a cross-functional improvement process.
Used effectively, the Program Mapper is not just a reporting tool—it is a framework for aligning programs, advising, scheduling, and enrollment management around a shared goal: ensuring that far more students are not just enrolled but are on a clear path to completion and post-completion success.