The Texas Success Center invites colleges to submit proposals for concurrent sessions at the upcoming Talent Strong Texas Pathways Institute #3, Transitioning Learners with a Focus on Early Success, to be held April 10-12, 2024, in Round Rock, Texas.
Our shared goal in implementing the statewide Talent Strong Texas Pathways strategy is helping students choose and enter an inclusive talent pathway. Key to our success in this endeavor is integrating and scaling updated essential practices that transform each college to become a “student-ready” institution. This requires the college to focus not only on the academic integration of the learner, but also their social integration. College leaders must consider how each learner will experience the transition into the institution, achieve early successes, and gain momentum toward their goals at each entry point into the institution.
This institute, Transitioning Learners with a Focus on Early Success, builds on the past successes of Texas community colleges which have been working to better serve all types of students (e.g., first generation, incumbent workers seeking to reskill/upskill, student parents, dual credit, part-time, multilingual learners of English (MLEs), adult basic education (ABE), etc.) from the multiple entry points. The institute will highlight the innovation and evidence-based strategies occurring throughout the state to scale accessible and inclusive talent pathways, including valued continuing education to credit credentials, by redesigning the point of entry to include career-focused onboarding with academic and social integration to promote college-level success in the first year. Research indicates that an emphasis on growing student success in Year 1, as measured by the strategy’s early momentum metrics, will yield improvement in credential completion and transfer success.
The most effective concurrent presentations focus on the HOW to bring a promising practice to scale. Other college leaders from very different campuses (i.e., large/small, rural/urban) are trying to understand how they might replicate what is working and impactful at your college within their local context. We encourage presenters to consider providing suggestions for how the promising practice shared could be adapted and modified by colleges operating in different contexts than the presenting college. Please dedicate time within your presentation for robust conversations regarding what it would take to initiate and scale your practice at other types of institutions.
