Giving Compass' Take:

• The community colleges that are switching education models from "cafeteria-style" education are adopting guided pathways, where students can build early roadmaps for their education trajectory. 

• How can donors help support guided pathway programs at community colleges?

• Read about what an effective community college should look like. 

Community colleges are at a watershed moment. Long viewed as an inexpensive pathway to a better job, deep budget cuts and low graduation rates have raised doubts as to whether they can deliver on their promise of an accessible education with a clear return on investment.

Meanwhile, automation has reshaped workforce needs by gobbling up unskilled jobs. The Great Recession marked the official "beginning of the college economy," according to the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. What that means, the Center explains, is that "good jobs" — or those that pay at least $35,000 — now mostly go to workers with at least a bachelor's degree.

Those forces have caused community colleges to question whether they should shift away from a "cafeteria-style" education model, in which students have many choices but little direction. Now, the idea of creating "guided pathways," or a system that encourages students to develop a road map early in their education, is taking hold.

How two-year institutions can best implement guided pathways, as well as measure the results of such initiatives, was the subject of a session Saturday at the American Association of Community Colleges' annual conference, held in Orlando, Florida.

Although switching to the guided pathways system can often take upward of five years, speakers said the effort is necessary to successfully operate in the future. "If we're going to really move the needle on student success, we need to re-engage and radically rethink the whole college," said John Fink, senior research associate at the Community College Research Center.

Read the full article about community colleges embracing guided pathways by Natalie Schwartz at Education Dive.