TLA Framework

The TLA Framework guides campuses through an intentional, five-phase process to examine, implement, and enhance teaching, learning, and assessment practices that support higher levels of student learning.

The TLA Framework process integrates the core components of the fourth pillar (Ensure Students Are Learning) of the Guided Pathways model. Campuses and practitioners will be guided through the five phases of the TLA Framework: (1) Conceptualize, (2) Formalize, (3) Implement, (4) Analyze & Revise, and (5) Scale. Each phase includes a series of guiding questions, resources, campus spotlights, team activities, and key takeaways to help prepare campuses for recreating the process at their own institutions. The TLA Framework process centers student success and equity, and recommends measurable steps that faculty, staff, and institutional leaders can take to address persisting gaps in student learning outcomes.

The refreshed, core components of the Ensure Students Are Learning pillar are:

• Scaled, high-quality, program relevant applied learning experiences
• Intentional and sustained student engagement
• Evidence-based, high-impact teaching practices across modalities
• Institution-wide commitment to equity-minded, asset-based teaching improvement
• Quality assessment of program learning outcomes that lead to credentials, further education, and/or gainful employment

The TLA Framework is informed by the process undertaken by twenty community colleges who piloted the Strengthening Guided Pathways and Career Success by Ensuring Students Are Learning project. In partnership with project evaluators at the Center for Community College Student Engagement (CCCSE), an advisory group comprised of members of the Pathways Collaborative, and the VALUE Scoring Collaborative, the two-year project engaged the twenty community colleges in an intentional process to develop structures, capacities, and resources for implementing the Ensure Students Are Learning pillar of the Guided Pathways model.

Throughout the TLA Framework, examples from the twenty pilot campuses are included to offer practical recommendations and key insights into the implementation, enhancement, and scaling of teaching, learning, and assessment practices to ensure students are learning. The TLA Framework was designed to capture the pilot campuses’ visionary process for creating transformational change and building capacity to ensure all students are learning and prepared for lifelong success.