This article critiques the whole-college reform project dubbed Guided Pathways. The article describes how Guided Pathways research has failed to provide data that support the reform project’s claims, disputes the extent to which Guided Pathways can claim to be equity-oriented work, and ultimately identifies Guided Pathways as a reform project that diverges from the interests of the two-year college.

This article defines a principled, critical orientation towards reform initiatives based on two instructors’ experiences as well as interviews with two-year college instructors across the country.