Texarkana College Wins Texas Success Center’s 2021 Overall Excellence Award for Implementation and Scaling of Guided Pathways

Texarkana College was announced as the winner of the 2021 Texas Pathways Excellence in Implementation and Scaling award by the Texas Success Center at their institute held in Dallas this week. The annual award recognizes the Texas community college district demonstrating the most progress overall in implementing Guided Pathway strategies leading to student success and completion. Dr. Donna McDaniel, Vice President of Instruction, said Texarkana College is so honored to be recognized by the Texas Success Center and to receive the overall award.

“Texarkana College has participated in the Texas Pathways project since 2016 and faculty and staff representatives have attended every session offered by the Center since that time,” said Dr. McDaniel. “Our success is a result of a college-wide commitment to pathway initiatives, and we are so proud to be recognized for our efforts in helping students succeed.”

A statement released by the Texas Success Center said, “Texarkana College has a strong institutional commitment to Guided Pathways and is an exemplar college in helping students accumulate meaningful higher education credits toward a credential. Program pathways are well designed, with program maps linked to students’ careers and transfer aspirations.”

Dr. McDaniel said faculty involvement with the development of program learning outcomes and a student’s participation in the Learning Frameworks course is what sets Texarkana College apart.

“Learning outcomes are embedded into program maps and we utilize faculty expertise to design course sequences to ensure prerequisites are planned appropriately,” said Dr. McDaniel. “In a student’s first semester, all first-time-in-college (FTIC) students, including dual credit students, complete a Learning Framework course that includes a career project and the identification of a major or career area of interest.”

Dr. McDaniel said in addition to course design, Texarkana College’s unique advising model provides a roadmap to connect students to college and community resources to help them overcome barriers to goal completion.

“Students come to Texarkana College for various reasons and at every stage of life, and we have the resources to help them succeed,” said Dr. McDaniel. “No matter where a student starts, whether it is in a developmental course taken as a college-prep or refresher course, an adult education or literacy program, or as part of our honors college, students benefit from the pathway strategies we implement to help them identify and complete their goals.”

McDaniel said the Texas Success Center’s Guided Pathway model has been Texarkana College’s catalyst for continuous improvement through the years and has proven to be beneficial for achieving student success.

Find more information about the Texas Success Center at https://tacc.org/tsc. To enroll at Texarkana College, visit https://www.texarkanacollege.edu/spring/. Registration is now open for the Spring 2022 semester.