Listen to Me: Community College Students Tell Us What Helps Them Persist

To help students realize their goals, community colleges across the country are working toward redesigning the student experience utilizing the guided pathways framework. Guided pathways is an institution-wide approach to student success that is based on giving students clear, coherent, and structured educational experiences that build in a variety of academic and nonacademic supports. The pathways framework includes implementation pillars focused on clarifying the paths (through program mapping), helping students get on a path, helping students stay on their path, and ensuring students are learning. In many states, such as Texas, there are statewide guided pathways efforts in place. As national thought leaders and colleges continue to refine the implementation of guided pathways, it's essential to understand more fully the triggers that might lead to student attrition as well as the leverage points that can change those outcomes. To this end, Center for Community College Student Engagement (CCCSE) conducted longitudinal focus groups with students at three Texas community colleges during the fall of 2021 and spring of 2022. While almost all the interviewed students returned for their second semester, their stories make it clear that for many of them, staying enrolled in college is akin to walking a tightrope on a daily basis.