Talent Strong Texas Pathways 2023 Award Winners
Houston, TX - The Texas Success Center is excited to announce the recipients of the 2023 Talent Strong Texas Pathways Awards. The Texas Success Center honored the exemplary work of eight Texas community colleges for their success in the implementation and scaling of the state’s research-based guided pathways strategy, Talent Strong Texas Pathways. Awardees were celebrated in Houston, Texas at the November Talent Strong Texas Pathways Institute: Mapping Pathways to Student Post-Completion Goals, with 500 attendees representing 48 colleges statewide.
Five colleges were recipients of the Recognition of Scaling Excellence (ROSE) award, including North Central Texas College, Coastal Bend College, Victoria College, Clarendon College, and Galveston College. Outstanding among their peers, these colleges have dramatically scaled the essential practices associated with the strategy, resulting in a dramatically improved student experience at their campus.
Three additional colleges received the Texas Success Center’s most prestigious awards.
Panola College received the “Rising Star” ROSE award. The college stands out among its peers for the tremendous strides that have been achieved over the past two years. The college demonstrated the most growth in scaling the essential practices of the strategy across four foundational pillars that lead to transformational change.
Paris Junior College received the “Exemplar” ROSE award. The college stands out among its peers for being the first Texas community college in the state to have achieved the institutional goal to scale the essential practices of the strategy across four foundational pillars that lead to transformational change.
Temple College received the Recognition of Dedication to Educational Outcomes (RODEO) award. The college was selected based on a series of factors: (1) CEO leadership and support of the guided pathways work at their campus, (2) institutional commitment to contribute to the learning network of Texas colleges, and (3) demonstration of remarkable success and growth in key early momentum metrics that research has shown best positions students for future credential completion and transfer.
Learn more about the awardees’ commitment to student success below.
2023 ROSE Award in Recognition of Scaling Excellence in Pillar 1: North Central Texas College
North Central Texas College was selected as a recipient of the 2023 ROSE award in Recognition of Scaling Excellence in Pillar 1, Mapping Pathways to Student End Goals. In 2021 and 2023, the Texas Success Center administered a Scale of Adoption Assessment (SOAA) process to better understand how Texas colleges are scaling reform efforts to serve a broader group of students. As such, the SOAA provides a snapshot of systems change activities that have occurred at the institutional level over the past two years. Since 2021, North Central Texas College demonstrates the highest growth rate among Texas community colleges for the essential practices relating to Pillar 1, Mapping Pathways to Student End Goals.
North Central Texas College took a team approach to program mapping to make significant progress, developing clear and informative maps that guide students to and through their goals to further education or to enter the workforce. As a result, all students at North Central Texas College can select a program pathway and make progress in courses in the first year that apply to all the programs in that pathway.
The Texas Success Center is proud to spotlight North Central Texas College’s commitment to institutional transformation and their efforts to become more student-centered.
2023 ROSE Award in Recognition of Scaling Excellence in Pillar 2: Coastal Bend College (Tie)
Coastal Bend College was selected as a recipient of the 2023 ROSE award in Recognition of Scaling Excellence in Pillar 2, Helping Students Choose and Enter a Pathway. In 2021 and 2023, the Texas Success Center administered a Scale of Adoption Assessment (SOAA) process to better understand how Texas colleges are scaling reform efforts to serve a broader group of students. As such, the SOAA provides a snapshot of systems change activities that have occurred at the institutional level over the past two years. Since 2021, Coastal Bend College demonstrates the highest growth rate (tied with Victoria College) among Texas community colleges for the essential practices relating to Pillar 2, Helping Students Choose and Enter a Pathway.
Coastal Bend College has made significant progress ensuring that all students have a robust orientation and onboarding experience from all entry points into the institution, including adult education, dual credit courses, and reskilling and upskilling opportunities for the workforce. All students at Coastal Bend College obtain advising services from a Success Coach, receive tailored supports to secure success in entry-level courses, and benefit from a comprehensive Learning Framework experience to start off strong.
The Texas Success Center is proud to spotlight Coastal Bend College’s commitment to support student success right from the start of their students’ learning journey.
2023 ROSE Award in Recognition of Scaling Excellence in Pillar 2: Victoria College (Tie)
Victoria College was selected as a recipient of the 2023 ROSE award in Recognition of Scaling Excellence in Pillar 2, Helping Students Choose and Enter a Pathway. In 2021 and 2023, the Texas Success Center administered a Scale of Adoption Assessment (SOAA) process to better understand how Texas colleges are scaling reform efforts to serve a broader group of students. As such, the SOAA provides a snapshot of systems change activities that have occurred at the institutional level over the past two years. Since 2021, Victoria College demonstrates the highest growth rate (tied with Coastal Bend College) among Texas community colleges for the essential practices relating to Pillar 2, Helping Students Choose and Enter a Pathway.
Victoria College has made significant progress ensuring that all students receive comprehensive advising at the start of their college experience. This advising is also provided to their high schools and adult education students to open the doors widely to college programs. In addition, the faculty at Victoria College drove the design and implementation of co-requisite math and English courses that are now fully scaled to support success in entry-level courses.
The Texas Success Center is proud to spotlight Victoria College’s commitment to support student success with robust advising practices and co-requisite coursework.
2023 ROSE Award in Recognition of Scaling Excellence in Pillar 3: Clarendon College
Clarendon College was selected as a recipient of the 2023 ROSE award in Recognition of Scaling Excellence in Pillar 3, Keeping Students on Their Pathway. In 2021 and 2023, the Texas Success Center administered a Scale of Adoption Assessment (SOAA) process to better understand how Texas colleges are scaling reform efforts to serve a broader group of students. As such, the SOAA provides a snapshot of systems change activities that have occurred at the institutional level over the past two years. Since 2021, Clarendon College demonstrates the highest growth rate among Texas community colleges for the essential practices relating to Pillar 3, Keeping Students on Their Pathway.
Clarendon College has made great strides scaling practices to keep students working towards their credential completion goals. Today, all students at Clarendon College work with an advisor, receiving personal attention to stay on their program pathway. Since the majority of students live on campus, Clarendon College is able to ensure that students have their needs met to succeed in their educational aspirations.
The Texas Success Center is proud to spotlight Clarendon College’s commitment to support student success with robust retention strategies that help students build momentum as they progress along their learning journey.
2023 ROSE Award in Recognition of Scaling Excellence in Pillar 4: Galveston College
Galveston College was selected as a recipient of the 2023 ROSE award in Recognition of Scaling Excellence in Pillar 4, Ensuring students are Learning. In 2021 and 2023, the Texas Success Center administered a Scale of Adoption Assessment (SOAA) process to better understand how Texas colleges are scaling reform efforts to serve a broader group of students. As such, the SOAA provides a snapshot of systems change activities that have occurred at the institutional level over the past two years. Since 2021, Galveston College has demonstrated the highest growth rate among Texas community colleges for the essential practices relating to Pillar 4, Ensuring Students are Learning.
Faculty at Galveston College use active and collaborative learning techniques in their classes. By the time a student finishes their program, they will have taken several courses that engage these skills. The institutional effectiveness process at the college includes assessing whether students achieve the intended program learning outcomes. Faculty to use the results of these assessments to improve student learning in their courses. Galveston College collects additional data from students through surveys and focus groups, which informs the cycle of continuous improvement and targeted professional development.
The Texas Success Center is proud to spotlight Galveston College’s faculty commitment to the assessment of student learning and continuous improvement.
2023 “Rising Star” ROSE Award in Recognition of Scaling Excellence: Panola College
Panola College has been selected as the recipient of the 2023 “Rising Star” ROSE award in Recognition of Scaling Excellence. Over the past two years, Panola College has stood out as an exemplar in the growth of the essential practices in each of the four pillars of the Texas Pathways strategy.
In particular, the college made substantial gains in designing program pathways and aligning the math course within each program pathway. The college ensures that all students have access to career exploration and that faculty have made strides in embedding opportunities for experiential learning into the classroom. Panola College also has made huge improvements in advising practices, ensuring advisors have the information they need to monitor all students for success and that students have access to and understand their progress through their program pathway to enable them to achieve credential completion.
The reform efforts of Panola College are far-reaching. The student experience at Panola College has been dramatically altered through the implementation of Texas Pathways, with 20 of the 23 individual essential practices impacting a broader group of students.
The Texas Success Center is proud to highlight the commitment of Panola College and the leadership team’s commitment to whole-college transformation.
2023 “Exemplar” ROSE Award in Recognition of Scaling Excellence: Paris Junior College
Paris Junior College has been selected as the recipient of the 2023 “Exemplar” ROSE award in Recognition of Scaling Excellence. Paris Junior College is the first community college in the state to have achieved the goal of reaching scale in the essential practices across all four pillars of the Texas Pathways strategy.
The student experience at Paris Junior College has been dramatically altered through the implementation and scaling of Guided Pathways at the institution. Today, learners access well-designed programs that align with their transfer or workforce goals. Learners also have the opportunity to actively explore and experience supportive onboarding for a strong start within their program. The college provides proactive advising throughout the student’s time at the college and ensures that students engage in active and applied learning throughout their program progression.
The comprehensive, whole-college reform efforts conducted by Paris Junior College are expansive. In scaling the essential practices of across the four pillars of the Talent Strong Texas Pathways strategy, Paris Junior College has fundamentally transformed into a student-ready institution.
The Texas Success Center is pleased to showcase the transformational impact of the Pathways strategy with this award and to highlight Paris Junior College’s commitment to comprehensive, whole-college systems change.
2023 RODEO Award in Recognition of Dedication to Educational Outcomes: Temple College
Temple College has been selected as a recipient of the 2023 RODEO award in Recognition of their Dedication to Educational Outcomes. The college was selected based on a series of factors: (a) CEO leadership and support of the guided pathways work at their college, (b) institutional commitment to contribute to the learning network of Texas colleges, and (c) demonstration of remarkable success and growth in early momentum metrics that research has shown best positions students for future credential completion and transfer to a 4-year institution.
Temple College is among the top colleges in Texas for having exemplar key performance indicator scores across eight early momentum metrics. Notably, the college stands out among its peers, demonstrating success for incoming students who: (a) earn 6+ credits in Term 1, (b) earn 15 credits in Year 1, (c) earn 30 credits in Year 1, and (d) persist from Term 1 to Term 2.
Temple College has been deeply engaged with the Texas Success Center’s semi-annual Pathways Institutes over the past year, sharing their expertise and lessons learned on the topics of transformational leadership, dual credit pathways, professional development, and the implementation of the Caring Campus model at their college. Temple College also has two institutional leaders participating as fellows in the Texas Success Center’s Leadership Academy, a one-year leadership development program designed to build a pipeline of mid-level leaders.
The commitment of Temple College to building a student-centered institution is evident as administrators, staff and faculty redesign programs and systems and cultivate a culture of caring to ensure that students achieve their postsecondary goals.