As part of the next frontier of guided pathways work, CCRC and WestEd are studying how community colleges are partnering with local employers, universities, and K-12 schools to build cross-sector educational pathways to good jobs in their communities. These partnerships have the dual aims of improving economic mobility for community residents and meeting the workforce needs of area employers. The initial cohort of study colleges includes four large community colleges in different regions of the country that are forging regional partnerships as part of ongoing whole-college guided pathways reforms: the Alamo Colleges District, the Community College of Rhode Island, Riverside Community College District, and Sinclair Community College.
Through this multiyear effort, CCRC and WestEd will help leaders in these institutions make better use of education and labor market data to inform the development and improvement of regional education pathways. Researchers will also conduct field research to capture lessons from the early adopter partners for other community colleges. Based on this work, we will develop a guide that includes practitioner-oriented case studies of each partnership, along with guidance and tools from the profile institutions and their partners on how to initiate and effectively manage regional pathways partnerships that build on a college’s guided pathways reforms. Kathy Booth will lead the project for WestEd.
Initial funding for this project is being provided by the JPMorgan Chase Foundation.