The Texas Success Center invites colleges to submit proposals for concurrent sessions at the upcoming Talent Strong Texas Pathways Institute #4, “Steering” Students to Success: Strategies for Keeping Students on Their Right Pathway, to be held November 13-15, 2024, in Fort Worth, Texas.
In every community college across our state, the Talent Strong Texas Pathways strategy is being scaled and institutionalized to increase the number of students who reach their end goal of a good career with living wages. Key to our success in this endeavor is integrating new essential practices that enables the transformation of each college so that it becomes “student ready,” by providing systematic, proactive, and unavoidable supports throughout the pathway journey that effectively steer a student to completing their desired learning journey, ensuring efficient program pathways that minimize the time it takes a student to complete their intended credential and transition to further education and/or high-value careers. This institute will pay particular attention to mandatory and systemized advising practices, including the use of data for continuous improvement and decision making as well as strategic investments in advising and support services for achieving the college’s student success goals.
“Steering” Students to Success: Strategies for Keeping Students on Their Right Pathway builds on the past successes of Texas colleges which have been working to better serve all types of students (e.g., first generation, incumbent workers seeking to reskill/upskill, continuing education, parenting, dual credit, part-time, multilingual learners of English (MLEs), adult basic education (ABE), etc.), in achieving their aspirations for a better future by ensuring that they advance effectively and efficiently along their program pathway. This institute highlights the innovation and evidence-based strategies occurring throughout the state to scale essential practices that support students beyond the first year through credential completion, putting the onus on the college to ensure each student engages in proactive advising at pre-determined program milestones and also receives regular and systematic communications related to their program, student life, and holistic supports. Harnessing untapped resources in the community that can be braided together and scaled to provide planned interventions and experiences throughout each student’s pathway to promote their sense of belonging will require new types of strategic partnerships that builds agency in the community to strengthen and scale support systems that will grow a culture of student success. Programming is aligned with the successful implementation of House Bill 8 and performance-based funding and supporting the paradigm shift toward understanding the value of and return on the provision of student supports.
The most effective concurrent presentations focus on the HOW to bring a promising practice to scale. Other college leaders from very different campuses (i.e., large/small, rural/urban) are trying to understand how they might replicate what is working and impactful at your college within their local context. We encourage presenters to consider providing suggestions for how the promising practice shared could be adapted and modified by colleges operating in different contexts than the presenting college. Please dedicate time within your presentation for robust conversations regarding what it would take to initiate and scale your practice at other types of institutions.
