UCLA

Guided Pathways is a systemic reform movement focused on increasing community college completion rates and student achievement (Bailey et al., 2015b). Within the California community college (CCC) System, every college is implementing Guided Pathways, and the California Community College Chancellor’s Office (CCCCO) continues to use this framework to organize and align all initiatives focused on improving equity and student success (California Community College Chancellor’s Office [CCCCO, n.d.b). Yet, CCCs continue to face challenges achieving equitable outcomes for all students even while implementing Guided Pathways (CCCCO, 2021). Because Guided Pathways is a relatively new framework, few studies have examined its implementation at California Community Colleges with a specific focus on racial equity from a qualitative perspective. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore the implementation of Guided Pathways at two California Community Colleges. This multi-site case study examined how the Educational Master Plan, Student Equity and Achievement (SEA) plan, Scale of Adoption Assessment (SOAA), and Guided Pathways Workplan contributed to local Guided Pathways implementation, including the equity related activities that colleges prioritized to implement and the perceptions of these activities on achieving racially equitable outcomes. In addition, this study sought to identify any challenges to the successful implementation of the Guided Pathways framework to close racial equity gaps. Findings from this study suggest that both cases focused on responding to a call for change, creating Career and Academic Pathways (CAPs) and mapping CAPs while implementing pillar two. Pillar two activities included developing Student Success and Completion Teams and expanding best practices from affinity programs. Participants at both cases expressed diverse perspectives on Guided Pathways and racial equity. Participants made sense of racial equity as a process, outcome and expressed concerns about using racial equity as lip service. Challenges included funding, leadership dynamics, and silos. Findings from this study suggest that to advance racial equity while implementing Guided Pathways, colleges should center racial equity in implementation, adopt an anti-racist framework, and continue to build capacity to work towards racially equitable student outcomes.