During North Iowa Area Community College’s (NIACC) recent interim accreditation visit, the Department team identified a promising practice in faculty onboarding and engagement as an exemplary guided pathways student success model that may be beneficial for other community colleges to implement.

NIACC’s a comprehensive onboarding program and robust engagement strategies ensure consistent, high-quality instruction across all faculty experience levels.

Key highlights of NIACC’s approach include:

• A two-week, paid orientation program for new faculty, held before the official start of the academic year. This ensures every new instructor is fully prepared before stepping into the classroom.
• Required instructional competency training for all new faculty and adjuncts, delivered through the Canvas New Faculty Onboarding and New Adjunct Onboarding courses during their first year. These courses are based on NIACC’s core instructional standards.
• Efforts to limit the number of different course preparations assigned to new faculty, allowing them to focus on mastering key content areas.
• A well-established mentoring program and monthly cohort meetings for new faculty, providing ongoing support and critical touchpoints throughout the year.
• A QAP that embeds structured onboarding and professional development opportunities, with targeted training to ensure quality adjunct instruction.
• A unique onboarding process for first-year adjuncts, which includes completion of the "Growing with Canvas" course and collaboration with assigned liaisons and program deans to help acclimate to the college’s expectations.
• Active engagement of adjunct faculty, including those teaching concurrent enrollment courses, in grade-norming exercises to promote consistency and quality across all course offerings.

NIACC’s commitment to faculty development and support exemplifies effective practice within the Quality Faculty Plan standard and offers a model for other institutions seeking to strengthen their own onboarding and engagement efforts.

For more information on this promising practice, contact Bureau of Community Colleges Administrative Consultant Robin Shaffer Lilienthal at robin.lilienthal@iowa.gov. 

The most recent Pathways Pillars in Practice webinar featured NIACC's Rachel McGuire and Anne Boyer presenting on how NIACC has integrated Meta Majors into Concurrent Enrollment advising with CCTCs and their high school partners.

These strategies, driven by remarkable student success data, are reshaping concurrent enrollment advising, strengthening career alignment, and closing achievement gaps for the high school population. View the recording to see what NIACC implemented Guided Pathways and Meta Major for all students, including concurrent enrollment students, and how these approaches are helping students take meaningful college credits while still in high school.

Additional recordings and resources from previous sessions are available here if you missed any of them.

For more information, contact Education Program Consultant Kelly Friesleben at kelly.friesleben@iowa.gov

The Department and Iowa’s 15 community colleges are moving forward with the HF2610 mandate to create a unified common course numbering system and lower division general education framework for Iowa’s community colleges. Signed by the Governor and taking effect July 1, the bill also directs community colleges to transition away from traditional remedial education in favor of credit-bearing corequisite academic support models.

To ensure a collaborative process, the Department of Education has convened three stakeholder-driven advisory committees composed of Department staff alongside community college faculty and professionals. These groups are already working on draft rules to provide local expertise and feedback as the Department facilitates the rulemaking and implementation processes for:

• Common course numbering system
• Lower division general education framework
• Corequisite remediation models

For more information on these advisory committees and the process of implementing House File 2610, contact Bureau of Community Colleges Education Program Consultant Derreck Calkins at derreck.calkins@iowa.gov.

Beginning with the 2026-27 school and program year, Senate File 369 mandates that adult education and literacy programs must administer a civics test to all students earning a high school equivalency diploma (HSED) prior to issuing a diploma and ensure each student attains at least one passing score. 

This high school equivalency civics test FAQ serves as a guide for implementing Senate File 369’s requirements. 

For more information on the civics test requirement, contact Bureau of Community Colleges Education Program Consultant Lisa Gard at lisa.gard@iowa.gov.