Few community college educators would dispute the value of helping every entering student explore their career and academic interests and develop a personalized educational plan. Plans help students understand which courses to take, how long their program will take to complete, and how it connects to their career and educational goals. Colleges can use those plans to schedule courses and monitor students’ progress to ensure on-time completion.
The sticking point is capacity. With stretched budgets and large advising caseloads, how can colleges provide this guidance to every student?
Six community colleges show how. They include large, multicampus institutions and small, rural colleges serving diverse communities in Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin. Some used grants to redesign their practices, but none operates with substantially more resources than other community colleges in its state.
Their experience should encourage leaders to reconsider what is possible with the people and resources they already have.
Today, the Community College Research Center released the final three case studies in a series accompanying our research brief, “From Goals to Graduation to Post-Completion Success: Why Every Student Needs an Educational Plan.”
These colleges show that scaling planning requires redesigning the entire recruitment and onboarding process so career exploration and planning become part of every new student’s experience. The colleges distribute that work across recruiters, admissions staff, advisors, faculty and others working in cross-trained teams and supported by clear business processes and technology that frees time for conversations with students.
What planning looks like at these colleges
Tallahassee State College (Florida) uses admissions navigators to connect applicants with career exploration, advising and registration. Students attend virtual “Supergroup” sessions to register for first-term courses, then meet individually with assigned advisors to develop full-program plans. Students intending to transfer identify a target university and major so their courses apply toward a bachelor’s degree in their field. Students can subsequently register directly from their plans, allowing advisors to focus on guidance rather than routine transactions. Tallahassee does all this with an average student-to-advisor ratio of around 800 to 1.
Southwest Wisconsin Technical College requires entering students to develop “student success plans” connecting five-year career goals with academic, support and financial plans. Students see how long their programs will take and how they will cover tuition and living expenses. Recruiters, advisors, financial aid staff and faculty share responsibility for this work. Faculty revisit students’ goals and connect them with work-based learning and professional networks. Planning also extends to dual enrollment and adult basic education students.
Marion Technical College (Ohio) builds career exploration and preparation for planning into a required first-year experience course. Students research programs, transfer opportunities, their career interests, embedded credentials and experiential learning, then bring that work to advising meetings to develop full-program plans. Technology helps prepopulate plans and alert advisors when students depart from them. Grant funding helped expand advising capacity; increased revenue through Ohio’s performance funding system helped sustain those positions.
St. Petersburg College (Florida) begins career conversations before students apply. Recruiters ask about students’ interests, goals, and the work they enjoy. Dedicated onboarding advisors help students explore programs, job demand, and transfer requirements, identifying people who need further help clarifying their direction. Career and academic advisors then work with assigned students to develop full-program plans. Different staff contribute at different stages, making individualized guidance manageable at a large college.
Durham Technical Community College (North Carolina) requires new and returning students to meet with advisors before registering. A required first-year course gives most entering students additional opportunities to explore careers and develop plans. Faculty advisors continue that work within programs, while success coaches help students address barriers. College liaisons begin planning with dual enrollment students in partner high schools. These complementary roles make planning a shared responsibility.
University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville pairs entering students with assigned navigators for mandatory 60- to 90-minute orientation and planning meetings. Together, they discuss careers, programs, life circumstances and financial aid; build full-program plans; and register for classes. Assigning separate staff to monitor and process applications frees up the college’s four navigators to devote their time to these conversations. Centralized scheduling uses students’ plans to determine course offerings, with schedules visible at least three semesters ahead.
How to make planning integral to every new student’s experience
These colleges did not scale planning simply by asking overextended advisors to do more. Instead, leaders reorganized responsibilities, connected existing onboarding and planning activities, and changed processes so that more staff members, and not just advisors, could increase the time they spend helping students make informed decisions.
That takes sustained leadership and coordination across the college. But these examples show that personalized planning need not wait for a windfall or a dramatic expansion of advising staff.
Start by examining what happens between a student’s first inquiry and the end of their first year. Who helps that student explore career possibilities, choose a direction and build a plan? How can you reorganize existing staff to work together to make that happen for every student? How can you redesign business processes and leverage your technology systems to free time for conversations and connections with students?
These six colleges show that helping every student develop a plan they will be excited to pursue is possible, but it requires rethinking how colleges organize staff and use technology to recruit and onboard students.
* * *
Hana Lahr is assistant director of research and director of applied learning, and Davis Jenkins is a senior research scholar at the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University.
