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Completion by Design

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Evidence · 1 claim (1 for) · 1 study (1 theoretical), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 1 claim rests on one study

Description

A community-college redesign framework and initiative that coordinates institutional policies, practices, and programmes into completion pathways to improve student progress and credential attainment.

Components

  • Completion pathways as integrated institutional designs for student progress: Completion pathways are the central design concept of the guide: "integrated sets of institutional policies, practices, and programs that are intentionally designed to maximize students' progress at each point of their community college experience, from the time students first consider attending the community college to their attainment of a credential." The guide positions developing strong completion pathways as a key attribute of a high-performing college and the chief means of raising completion while containing costs, maintaining open access, and ensuring quality. It stresses that pathways require systemic and structural change across all instructional programming and student support services, not isolated best practices at a single stage. (Nodine et al. (2011))
  • Eight design principles for effective completion pathways: The guide enumerates eight design principles drawn from research and practice: seamlessly connecting academics, career and technical education, professional development, and student supports with K-12 schools, transfer partners, and employers; providing coherent, clearly communicated course sequences and enrolling students quickly in a program; defining student competencies and learning outcomes within and across programs; improving engagement through education and career planning and interactive alerts and messaging; customizing, contextualizing, and differentiating instruction; making academic catch-up a responsibility of all programs using acceleration, modularization, and integrated developmental education; integrating student services with instructional supports and gatekeeper courses; and leveraging technology to broaden, improve, and reduce costs of curricular options and services. (Nodine et al. (2011))

Claims

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Key Sources

  • Nodine, T., Venezia, A., and Bracco, K. (2011). Changing Course: A Guide to Increasing Student Completion in Community Colleges. San Francisco, CA: WestEd. http://knowledgecenter.completionbydesign.org/knowledge-center
Page metadata
Field Value
type product
id completion-by-design
title Completion by Design
description A community-college redesign framework and initiative that coordinates institutional policies, practices, and programmes into completion pathways to improve student progress and credential attainment.
status review
product_kind framework
generated by process:settle-candidates on 2026-10-10
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