Edison State Community College selected for Phase 2 of Rural Guided Pathways Project
The initiative is focused on helping students from rural areas find academic success through reforms and guided pathway frameworks.
Edison State Community College has been selected to participate in Phase 2 of the Rural Guided Pathways Project, an initiative that seeks to improve opportunities for academic success for students who come from rural areas. The project is led by the National Center for Inquiry & Improvement and involves collaboration between the schools involved and with community partners.
According to an article on Edison State Community College’s website, college president Chris Spradlin was quoted as saying, “Edison State is honored to be chosen as a participant in the Rural Guided Pathways 2.0 Project. This is a rigorous, industry-leading initiative that will prepare the College to be a state-of-the-art institution of higher education. As we look forward to Edison State’s next 50 years, we are committed to being innovative, workforce-focused, and efficient in our programs and services. The Rural Guided Pathways work strongly encourages these characteristics, so it is a perfect fit for the College. We are excited to see how Edison State evolves over the next three to five years.”
Edison State Community College will work with other colleges in the project and community partners to find ways to improve student success in higher education, particularly for students who come from rural towns. The Rural Guided Pathways Project is a three-year initiative that will see rural community colleges collaborating with each other to find better ways to improve student outcomes. Until this point, there has been little success for rural institutions who have attempted to implement student success initiatives in rural areas, even if those strategies have worked in other school environments.
The institutions will work to ensure that a larger number of students are able to earn a credential that will help them improve their wages or attend a four-year college, work with community partners to implement a cross-sector approach to increase rural economic opportunity, and implement evidence-based reforms that will improve student success.
Gretchen Schmidt, senior fellow at the National Center for Inquiry & Improvement, said, “We are excited to have Edison State participate in Rural Pathways. By joining Rural Pathways, Edison State is demonstrating its commitment to making lasting changes that will improve student outcomes.”
Edison State Community College is one of 28 colleges participating in Phase 2, which will run from 2025-2027. Phase 1 ran from 2022 to 2024 and included 16 colleges.
For more information about Edison State Community College, visit the school’s website.