Community College News

Guided Pathways: What They Mean for Your Child’s Education

Choosing the right educational path for your child has never been more complex—or more important. As parents and educators evaluate how best to prepare students for college, careers, and life beyond the classroom, a model known as Guided Pathways is reshaping the conversation.

Originally developed for community colleges, Guided Pathways have expanded into K–12 schools and even some private institutions. In 2025, this approach is increasingly seen as a roadmap to help students connect their learning to clear outcomes, such as higher education success, workforce readiness, or vocational training.

This article explains what Guided Pathways are, why they matter, and how they may affect your child’s education.

What Are Guided Pathways?

At its core, Guided Pathways is an educational model designed to give students a structured, transparent route through their academic journey. Instead of navigating a maze of disconnected classes, students follow clearly defined programs that align with career or transfer goals.

The model emphasizes four pillars, as outlined by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC):

1. Clarify the Path – Schools define clear program maps with sequenced courses.

2. Help Students Choose and Enter a Path – Early career and academic advising guide students to make informed decisions.

3. Keep Students on the Path – Ongoing monitoring and support ensure progress.

Is Your Community College Top Ranked? (2025 Update)

Choosing a community college often involves more than just location or cost. In 2025, rankings matter—because they often reflect how well a college supports student success, transfers, job readiness, and affordability. This article updates what “top ranked” means now, what has changed, and how parents and educators should evaluate community colleges.

1. What “Top Ranked” Means in 2025

A “top ranked” community college usually performs strongly across several criteria. Here are the key dimensions:

• Affordability: Tuition and fees for in-state students; net cost after aid.

• Retention and Graduation Rates: How many students return, finish certificates, or earn associate degrees within expected time frames.

• Student-Faculty Ratio: A measure of how large classes may be or how accessible instructors are for one-on-one engagement.

• Outcomes after Graduation: Transfer success, earnings, workforce placement.

• Special Programs andInnovation: Career / technical education, online offerings, competency-based models.

Recent rankings, such as the SmartAsset “Best Community Colleges – 2025 Study”, ranked 585 institutions based on tuition & fees, student-faculty ratio, and retention rates to assess overall performance. SmartAsset

2. Key 2025 Data: Tuition, Cost, and Rankings

Here are some of the most current statistics that should shape your evaluation:

• The average tuition for public community colleges in-state

The last year and a half have been difficult for all of us, but perhaps most difficult for young people who were already at a transition point in their lives. The decision to go to college is a major one even in a normal year, and one that should not be made lightly. Throwing a global pandemic into the mix complicated the situation for thousands of students, many of whom put their college plans on hold.

Now that the pandemic is slowly getting under control, experts and educators alike wonder whether we’ll see a return to normalcy in the world of academia. Thousands of students who chose to take a gap year may or may not return and, even if they did, the college experience may not be what it once was.

In this article, we’ll explore the subject of declining enrollment in the aftermath of the pandemic along with a worsening problem – the gender gap.

Community College Enrollment Pre-Pandemic

While the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic was discovered in 2019, its global impact wasn’t truly felt until 2020. To understand the impact of the pandemic on the nation’s education system, we need to first take a look at enrollment data prior to the pandemic.

According to data from the Provisional National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), roughly 8.2 million undergraduates were enrolled in two-year public colleges for the 2018-19 school year. In the fall of 2019, 5.5 million students were enrolled –

In certain circles, community colleges are looked down upon. Some believe a community college degree is less valuable than one earned at a traditional four-year college or university. Many believe, however, that community colleges are the “cornerstone of American higher education.” As the country works to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, they may be more important now than ever.

Community colleges enroll nearly half of all college students and provide educational opportunities some students would otherwise not be able to access. They play a role in workforce development, local economic development, and vocational training.

The coronavirus pandemic that has stretcherding to a 2015 study cod into the summer of 2020 has changed the face of the American education system at all levels. As we look ahead to the 2020-21 school year, thousands of students find themselves wondering what their postsecondary education is going to look like. In these times of change, community colleges are becoming more critical than ever before.

The Role of Community Colleges

The significance of community college is right there in the name – community. Steven Mintz of Inside Higher Ed suggests, “community colleges have a critical role to play in addressing the country’s greatest challenges: stagnant family incomes, disparities in income and wealth, and political polarization.” These institutions play a significant role in their communities and in the more outstanding educational system.

These are some of the most critical roles community colleges play:

• Workforce development
• Local and regional economic development
• Technical and vocational

COVID-19 has financially impacted colleges and universities across the nation in numerous ways. From forced housing refunds to declining enrollment and loss of revenue, many community colleges wonder what the 2020/21 semester will look like – if they have one.

In this article, we’ll explore the financial impact of COVID-19 on community colleges and what they are doing to make up for lost funds. We’ll also touch on predictions for enrollment in the 2020/21 school year and examine the data we’ve already collected regarding the impact of the pandemic on community colleges as well as their faculty and students.

How Have Budget Cuts Affected Community Colleges?

Though the novel coronavirus had already taken hold in numerous countries by then, the World Health Organization (WHO) didn’t announce COVID-19 as a global health crisis until March 11, 2020. Within weeks, thousands of businesses closed their doors, and millions of college students were sent home.

Schools nationwide scrambling to take their programs online were met with the additional challenge of unequal access to resources among their students. For thousands of students, the college experience was significantly altered, and not everyone took it in stride. Students sued several colleges for tuition refunds, and many colleges were forced to provide housing refunds, often over $1,500 per student.

Now that most colleges and universities have officially completed their 2019/20 school year, colleges are left wondering what the next will bring. Many schools find themselves facing budget shortfalls that will undoubtedly impact