SRJC Forward Workplan | Guided Pathways is now SRJC Forward

Successful Enrollment and Entering Students

Barrier

CCCApply is a long and arduous application.

Solution(s)

Provide support staff: Clearly identify staff who are responsible for reaching out to students who are responsible for reaching out to students who have not yet enrolled. Provide the student with their phone, email, and text contact information.

Barrier

The enrollment process has many steps and is complex.

Solution(s)

Provide support staff: Clearly identify one success coach or staff member who acts as enrollment ambassadors helping them through the process and engaging them before the first class. ambassadors helping them through the process and engaging them before the first class. Clearly communicate: Notify students about the Welcome and Connect Center and other services that can be used to assist them in the enrollment process. can be used to assist them in the enrollment process.

Barrier

Institutional constructs require students to identify a major... at the point of entry, but they are understandably undecided.

Solution(s)

Guided Pathways: Create broad academic and career interest areas to assist students in dealing with the overwhelming choices of majors and programs available, and to begin exploring the various disciplines and careers available. The college should launch new Guided Pathways web pages which are more intuitive and inform students of where to begin and find resources. It also includes launching the program mapper, which details more information on courses and majors.
Universal major and career exploration: The college lacks a universal system for major and career exploration for undecided/unsure students. Create an intentional and effective system where all undecided/unsure students explore majors and careers. This should include a pre-college offering to guide students through an initial selection of a career interest area, and a more in-depth exploration during the first year.
Mentors: Create a coordinated academic and career mentor program at the peer and/or professional levels.
Planned pathways: Develop Dual Enrollment systems that intentionally develop and map pathways between high schools and the college.
Coordinated and best practices in communication: Utilize best practices in communicating to students, such as those utilized by Sierra College, which standardize methods and presentation of information.

Barrier

The institution has not made clear to students how to connect with college services for onboarding and next steps.

Solution(s)

First year experience: Create a coordinated and strategic approach to allowing students to pick a first-year experience that will most optimally orient them to success and create multiple options for a first-year experience such that all students can have the experience that is right for them. a. FYEs often include organizing the enrollment/onboarding experience and train students to use the technology tools of the institution. b. FYEs often include a “home room” that creates a community-building setting amongst one’s peers which provides a safe place for students to discuss their experiences and needs and address the “academic imposter syndrome.” c. FYEs which often address the “hidden curriculum” of higher education are most valuable. Customize the format for ESL, noncredit, and older students.
All-site, multi-modal, and diversely timed services: continually study student needs for services to determine the place/time/modes various different student groups need them. Consider innovative models such as ‘evening generalists’ or consolidated service centers to meet nonstandard business hour needs.
Coordinated and best practices in communication: Utilize best practices in communicating to students, such as those utilized by Sierra College, which standardize methods and presentation of information.

Barrier

Lack of a universally welcoming and inclusive culture, with characteristics of resistance to change and accountability around IDEAA practices, which prevents institutional transformation.

Solution(s)

Create shared beliefs and practices: Build a campus culture that deliberately and systematically welcomes, guides, and engages students, particularly first-generation students and those disproportionately impacted. Update policies and practices to respond directly to the needs and identities of our students and communities.
Caring Campus: Continue to implement the Caring Campus initiative and practices that create care and belonging for students, adding to it behaviors and attitudes that also address IDEAA concerns.
Normalize embedded and culturally affirming support: Intentionally foster a culture, both inside the classroom and without, where the responsibility for delivering help and support is on the institution and not the student.
Strive for best practices: Create a college culture that cherishes and promotes retention and practices enacting the behaviors of welcoming, guiding and engaging students as illustrated in examples of: just-in-time interventions during a semester; faculty/counselor collaboration; creating a caring atmosphere in classes; encouraging/developing student self-confidence; referring students to resources when students are seeking instructor feedback on progress; and, practicing warm hand offs by taking students to visit campus resources in-person.

Persistence: First Primary Term to Secondary Term and Entering Students

Barrier

Support Services are not optimally organized around who students are and how students would use them.

Solution(s)

Proactive and unavoidable support around Pathways: Design a holistic support system (integrating Academic Affairs and Student Services) that utilizes data on our students and is able to appropriately intervene. These support systems can be developed around each of the Guided Pathways developed by the college. Cross-functional teams (Academic Affairs and Student Services) are cohorted together to provide support for students.
Complete SRJC Connect (Academic Backpack): This program will connect students with the array of services matching their needs. SRJC Connect needs to become embedded in our onboarding, so it is unavoidable for students. This software will also allow student’s basic contact information to be shared with the targeted support services, so that they can do their own targeted outreach.
Make interventions proactive and put the responsibility on the institution to know our students and what they need when they need it: The new Banner SIS system will have a CRM product that will allow tracking of students' access to support services as well as allow faculty and staff to raise alerts indicating that students need specific support. The above points create a new paradigm where students are consistently informed and orientated to targeted support services; and, more importantly, the imperative to reach out is not solely on the student, but rather on the district and the support services themselves to reach out to students to provide help. a. Early Alert: Implement an Early Alert System consistently and widely. It should include but not be limited to having buy-in and be easy to use for faculty (automated) and addressing absences and early setbacks in class.
Cultivate belonging and cultural humility in tutorial and other support services: Engage Tutorial, Math Lab, and Writing Lab faculty and staff in ongoing professional learning and create mechanisms for accountability that hold these service providers to a high standard that reflects leading edge research on IDEAA-driven tutorial strategies.
Engage tutorial services, The Writing Center, and the Math Lab in the work of the Caring Campus initiative and the cultural humility work in which the college is engaged. Communities of Practice that focus on the development of culturally humble attitudes are great avenues to address this barrier.
Re-envision and embed tutorial and other support services: Embed tutorial services and other relevant support services in spaces where the students dwell like the classroom, dorms, cultural centers, sports teams, clubs, and including often-neglected spaces like Roseland and rural district sites.
Supplemental Instruction: Thoughtfully re-envision PALS to embrace consistent approaches and practices, including training and professional development, based upon best practices throughout the state. A taskforce should be created to investigate this issue, design a series of recommendations, and ultimately make a proposal for changes, with a focus on providing embedded supplemental instruction using a proven evidence-based supplemental instruction model.
Parent Students: Develop support systems such as childcare, after school programming, and partnerships with community-based organizations for students who are also parents.
Create a student-facing Canvas shell of “My College Experience”: Expand on the new CubHub in Canvas to include all the vital activities in which students need to engage organized by the milestones of their college journey, such as pre-college activities, first year needs, connecting with services, etc. See Section 1.1.3 Successful Enrollment, D.1.
Basic Needs: Continue to develop systems to address both immediate and long-term needs for food, transportation, and housing for students; and explore possibilities and partnerships that could create basic income programs for students that work in concert with other basic needs initiatives like housing and student employment.
Counseling & support services that are embedded in pathway success teams; directly address cultural identity and belonging and assure students they belong and encourage student’s growth as a person as well as their own self-advocacy as they are all essential elements in student success.
All-site, multi-modal and diversely timed services: See Section 1.1.3 Successful Enrollment, D.3.
First year experience: See Section 1.1.3 Successful Enrollment, D.2.
Optimize student success coaching: Success coaching incorporates strategies for many of the known issues for first year students. Assigning peer coaches to all students and adding classified staff success coaches that can remain with a student throughout their education are ideas to consider.

Barrier

The first-year experience differs greatly for students based upon the level of academic preparation they begin with.

Solution(s)

Address placement issues: Continue to research and develop new initiatives to assure students are placed into the correct English and math classes, supporting and directing students who begin below transfer level.
Equitable and creative learning labs: Develop robust and equitable labs and other supplementary learning experiences for students. These should be developed using IDEAA best practices with a focus on closing equity gaps and supporting disproportionately impacted student groups, with a particular focus on not placing all the burden on the faculty but rather creating institutionalized programs and support. This work should include ongoing assessment and evaluation of the labs and support programs.
Universal and focused interventions: Focus on developing systems that address various levels of needs for students, based on their level of academic preparation and/or need. This should include both institution-wide programs and targeted programs for disproportionately impacted students, and likely include case management systems.

Barrier

Student support systems tend to provide support based upon what students request/seek, but do not have interventions that catch students in the moment they need support and retain them.

Solution(s)

Unavoidable support: Create structures so that student support is unavoidable (by design) where students are guided to support services and also directly supported through curriculum or other systems. This includes strategies such as required new student orientation, embedded support services, proactive faculty in the classroom, support teams, etc.
Embedded support teams: Create and deploy holistic student support teams that incorporate counseling, education planning, tutoring and other relevant support services and can seamlessly share information and work together to support student needs.
Increase interaction time: Provide the students with more (and richer) opportunities to engage with the institution and its resources. These include learning communities, first-year experience, embedded tutoring and support services, and other similar opportunities.

Completion of Transfer-Level Math & English and Entering Students

Barrier

The institution cannot give students clear and equitable pathways through English and math that are connected to their academic and career goals.

Solution(s)

Clear and equitable pathways through English and math: Continue to evolve and refine existing approaches and curriculum in math and English to create clearer and more equitable pathways for students, focusing on closing equity gaps and supporting disproportionately impacted students.
Align pathways with goals: Assure that students understand which math/English options support their academic and career goals, including the role of statistics vs. calculus and the alignment to meta-majors.
Co-requisite and support models: Continue to develop co-requisite and other support models, including labs and embedded tutoring, to assist students in completing transfer-level math and English within their first year.

Barrier

Students struggle to navigate the course sequences and requirements for their programs and often take unnecessary units.

Solution(s)

Program mapping: Continue the development of program maps and make them widely accessible to students, counselors, and faculty so students can take the right courses in the right order.
Education planning: Increase and improve education planning so students have a clear plan early and update it regularly, including clear “next step” guidance.

Transfer and the Student Journey

Barrier

Students have difficulty navigating transfer pathways and understanding requirements.

Solution(s)

Clear transfer pathways: Provide clear transfer maps and consistent guidance, aligning counseling, faculty, and online resources.
Early transfer planning: Encourage transfer planning early and integrate transfer education into onboarding and first-year experiences.

Completion and Student Success

Barrier

Students face barriers that prevent persistence and completion, including unclear pathways and inconsistent support.

Solution(s)

Pathway-centered supports: Build consistent support systems around pathways, using proactive outreach and integrated teams.
Completion momentum: Implement strategies that help students make early progress while exploring, with strong education planning and milestone-based guidance.

Student Equity and Achievement (SEA) Program Integration

Barrier

Equity-focused programs and supports are not consistently integrated into a coherent student experience.

Solution(s)

Integrate SEA supports: Align SEA-funded supports with pathway-centered teams and make access clearer and more proactive.
Equity-minded accountability: Use data and equity-driven practices to ensure supports reach disproportionately impacted students when needed.

Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT) Integration

Barrier

ADT opportunities and requirements are not consistently understood or surfaced for students.

Solution(s)

Clarify ADT pathways: Make ADT options and requirements more visible and easier to navigate via maps, counseling, and web resources.
Support ADT completion: Provide proactive advising and milestone checks to keep students on-track.

Zero Textbook Cost to Degree (ZTC) Program Integration

Barrier

ZTC pathways are not consistently structured and communicated for students.

Solution(s)

Expand ZTC mapping and communication: Create clearer sequences and visibility so students can intentionally choose ZTC options.
Reduce cost barriers: Integrate ZTC into onboarding and education planning so cost-saving choices happen early.

California Adult Education Program (CAEP) Integration · Noncredit to Credit work

Barrier

Noncredit-to-credit transitions can be unclear and difficult to navigate.

Solution(s)

Clarify transitions: Build clear bridge pathways and supports that help students move from noncredit to credit with confidence.
Coordinate supports: Align counseling, onboarding, and mapped sequences to reduce friction points.

Strong Workforce Program (SWP) Integration

Barrier

Workforce supports and pathways are not consistently integrated into a coherent experience for students.

Solution(s)

Integrate SWP supports: Align workforce supports with pathway teams and make career-connected experiences more visible and structured.
Strengthen employer and career connections: Expand work-based learning, advising, and clear program sequences tied to careers.