Yates speaks about Guided Pathways
EL DORADO — Dr. Jim Yates, dean of liberal arts at South Arkansas Community College, informed the Kiwanis Club about a new program called the Guided Pathways Model on Wednesday. Guided Pathways is a statewide and national program that will lead to higher graduation rates and ultimately lead to fewer loss credits, while saving students money and time.
Yates was most recently an associate professor of English at Independence (Kansas) Community College. His previous positions were vice president of academic affairs at Carl Albert State College in Poteau, Oklahoma; chair of English, foreign language and humanities at Northwestern Oklahoma State University in Alva, Oklahoma and instructor of English at Rich Mountain Community College in Mena.
Yates has been the dean of liberal arts at SouthArk since July of 2016. At SouthArk, their focus is to prepare students for the transition to a four year school and either further education or the work world.
“At SouthArk, you can get your first two years with an associate’s degree or your first two years of your baccalaureate degree,” Yates said. “What we really focus on, at least in my division, is providing quality general education programs and classes where we really emphasis the liberal arts, but also emphasis critical thinking.” Currently in higher education as a whole, students’ progress is minimally monitored. Students receive limited feedback and the only
communications from the institution are a financial aid warning and graduation notification. A major problem students face is that they choose courses based on the need for a full-time load or convenience, not program requirements.
“I found over the years, especially for me as a student, I needed that feedback and I needed that support,” Yates said. “It’s really easy in college to get disconnected if you don’t have someone there to check in with.”
Students need opportunities to explore fields of study, see connections between what they are
learning and what they need for a career and see the program as a whole. Students also need a clear two or three year calendar of courses to take and knowledge of milestones to know that they are on track.
“They come in as freshmen and have literally no clue how to go about filling out their enrollment or what is expected of them for a program,” Yates said. “Typically, at a good sized university, you’ll have about 100 majors to choose from and for someone just out of high school, or even a non-traditional student coming back, that can be kind of mind blowing.”
It is not uncommon for a student to change their major five or six times within a year, he said. By the end of their first year,
they have either lost credits or they find out they have a lot more classes that they need. Now, the average time it takes to receive a degree is five or five and a half years.
The Guided Pathways Model is an integrated, institution-wide approach to student success based on intentionally designed, clear, coherent and structured experiences. It is structured to guide each student effectively and efficiently from entry to attainment of postsecondary credentials to careers in the labor market, Yates said.
Essentials for Guided Pathways include whole programs of study, informed choice and meta majors, default pathways, guaranteed course schedules, milestone courses, intrusive advising and math alignment to majors.
Intrusive advising is crucial for students because they work from day one
with their advisors to make sure the students are staying on track. With Guided Pathways, a student must see their advisor before registering for class if they do not complete the milestone course on time, fall two or more courses behind on their academic map or have a 2.0 GPA or less.
The direction higher education is heading towards is having the minimum credit hours raised to 15 hours a semester, with 120 credit hours for a bachelors degree and 60 credits for a two year degree.
“Guided Pathways is something that we’re working toward, I know, at SouthArk,” Yates said.