The Pulse of Higher Ed

The Replication Dilemma

Today, higher education leaders face intense pressure: prove the value of credentials, raise attainment rates for adult learners, and do it all on shrinking budgets. We have access to high-leverage frameworks—like integrated student support or the guided pathways model—which identify proven principles for success often derived from successful regional or national initiatives.

The Framework vs. The Blueprint

The challenge of adult learner engagement and success lies not in the framework, but in the method of replication.

• A Framework (or Pattern) is a set of research-backed principles (e.g., connecting learning to real-life goals).
• A Blueprint (or Model) is a more focused, step-by-step instruction manual for replication that assumes similar local contexts.

When action frameworks are treated as inflexible blueprints, institutions prioritize costly, exact replication over strategic adaptation. This approach drains resources and is ultimately ineffective because the core principles are not connected to the unique systemic context and assets of the local place.

Instead of relying on the blueprint’s fragile, single-point structure, we must build a resilient system. That system is the rhizome: a decentralized, underground root network that spreads horizontally. If one part is severed, the network is not only resilient, but it finds new ways to connect and grow. The place-based rhizome is the necessary resilient support system for adult learners, built by connecting existing community assets.

Challenging the Blueprint Mentality: From Deficit to Asset

The blueprint mentality often relies on a deficit model: identifying all the problems (barriers, poverty, lack of resources) and believing the institution must build expensive, new programs to fill the gaps. This mentality prevents the decentralized, resilient growth of the rhizome by focusing on what is missing rather than what already exists.

A more powerful pathway involves adopting the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) framework, which centers on recognizing and connecting existing strengths. This approach is fundamentally relationship-oriented and place-based—the two elements that fuel the rhizome’s connectivity.

The strategic institutional task is not to build what the best practice framework requires, but to find and connect the existing local assets (the rhizome’s roots) that can fulfill the framework’s function.

Three Practical Steps to Activate the Place-Based Rhizome

For the busy practitioner, the shift from blueprint replication to rhizome activation is manageable and budget-conscious. Here are three practical steps to adapt regional or national patterns using local assets:

1. Stop Building Blueprints, Start Mapping Assets

• The Problem: Frameworks demand specific services (e.g., non-academic support).
• Action: Re-task staff for low-cost asset mapping to identify non-traditional community nodes (faith groups, libraries, local organizations) that already provide support services.
• Example: Utilizing a simple asset directory to leverage existing local social services rather than funding a new, duplicative service center on campus, as demonstrated by early efforts in programs like Rhode Island College’s L4L.The college becomes the connector, not the sole provider.

2. Shift Staff Time: From Program Creation to Network Connection

• The Problem: Budget-constrained staff try to build complex, integrated support systems themselves, leading to staff overwhelm and fragile programs.
• Action: Reallocate time from program creation to building reciprocal relationships to share the load. The staff’s value shifts from being the provider to the facilitator of the resilient rhizome.
• Example: Utilizing models for co-location and shared service delivery with non-profit partners to create resilient, decentralized support nodes, similar to the strategies employed by Skyline College and Central New Mexico Community College in their financial stability centers.

3. Embed Reciprocity: Make the Place an Investor in Adult Learner Success

• The Problem: While connecting with employers is common advice, it often leaves the adult learner shouldering all the financial and logistical risk of education, threatening completion.
• Action: Transition the employer/community connection from basic curriculum review to a commitment to reciprocal investment in the learner’s journey. This builds a resilient system of shared risk. 
• Examples of Reciprocity: Implementing stipends for stackable credentials (financial reciprocity) and establishing employer/community-subsidized childcare/transportation (logistical reciprocity). This systemic approach goes deeper than standard workforce alignment; it shares the financial and logistical burden across the rhizome, ensuring resilience.

Conclusion: Cultivating Local Roots

Systems change for adult learner attainment is an act of local cultivation and adaptation. The most successful institutions will be those that transition from being replicators of blueprints to becoming expert connectors who activate the robust, resilient rhizome already embedded in their unique place.

 

Dr. Stacy Townsley-Kestin has over 20 years of experience as a higher education leader and strategist. She recently served as the inaugural Associate Commissioner for Adult Strategy at the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, where she led key initiatives, including the development of the state’s first credit for prior learning (CPL) model policy guidance and a statewide initiative recognizing military student support efforts. Stacy is also a Strategic Advisor for UPCEA Research and Consulting.  To learn more about UPCEA Research and Consulting, please contact [email protected].