Pillar 1: Clarify the Path

The first pillar of the Guided Pathways model is Clarify the Path, which requires MVCC to create clear, coherent curricular pathways to employment and further education for every academic program. This includes mapping all programs we offer to career and transfer while including:

• Detailed information on target career and transfer outcomes.
• Clear course sequences, critical outcomes, embedded credentials, and progress milestones for each academic program.
• The alignment of math and other core coursework with each program of study.

What we've done so far:

• The College Wide Curriculum Committee and academic departments re-mapped all programs at the College utilizing a complete evaluation of academics, costs, course offerings, pre and corequisites, applied learning, and career and transfer preparedness. Math and other developmental requirements were also evaluated.
• The Meta-Major Workgroup created meta-majors, or collections of academic majors with related courses and career goals, and used them to reorganize our 90+ academic programs into six schools, rather than eight departments.
• The Multiple Measures Workgroup researched current best practices for college placement under the multiple measures framework and analyzed current placement practices at MVCC to help inform a more holistic and individualized approach to the assessment of “college readiness" in our students.
• The Prior Learning Assessment Workgroup is examining all aspects of prior learning assessment at MVCC, including credit by exam, credit for life experience, credentialing services, competency-based learning, non-credit to credit seamless pathways, and military credit. Here is a draft of the group's recommendations.

What's ahead:

• Implementation teams are working to implement recommended changes throughout the College.