College Spark awards $500,000 grant to EvCC for Guided Pathways work
Press Release
Release Date: July 12, 2016
EvCC: Heather Bennett, Executive Director of Institutional Effectiveness & Resource Development, 425-388-9253; hbennett@everettcc.edu
College Spark: Thai Craig, 206-282-4528; Thai@collegespark.org
Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges: Laura McDowell, 360-704-4310; lmcdowell@sbctc.edu
College Spark awards $500,000 grant to EvCC for Guided Pathways work
EVERETT, Wash. – College Spark Washington and the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) have selected Everett Community College to receive a $500,000 Guided Pathways implementation grant over the next five years.
EvCC is one of five colleges in Washington state to receive the grant. Peninsula, Pierce, South Puget Sound and South Seattle colleges also received grant funding.
Guided Pathways is an evidence-based approach that simplifies choices about college courses, informs and supports those choices and directs students into an intentional, comprehensive program of study that leads to a credential.
EvCC will use the grant to add new resources, including technology tools, to help students navigate the systems to credential completion and transition to employment or transfer to a four-year college more smoothly. The college will also compensate faculty for their additional work to restructure the college's academic pathways.
“The grant will allow us to build on our success helping students map out the path to their goals and provide additional support in reaching those goals,” said EvCC President David Beyer.
The selection criteria focused on identifying colleges that are in the best position to fully implement Guided Pathways.
“These colleges have a history of implementing large-scale reforms, experience working cross-departmentally to implement large scale changes that impact both instruction and student services and solid work on closing the equity gap for low-income students and students of color,” said Jan Yoshiwara, SBCTC Deputy Executive Director for Education Services. “They also have the enthusiasm and readiness to implement Guided Pathways with faculty engagement.”
EvCC was one of six colleges in the country recognized as leading the way in helping students successfully transfer to four-year schools in a report issued in May from the Community College Research Center and the Aspen Institute.
For more information about the report and other EvCC initiatives, visit EverettCC.edu/Leader.