Last month, the California Community Colleges' Student Success task force released draft recommendations on how to improve the performance of the state's community colleges. The recommendations represent a significant step forward for the state and the nation: It is the first time that the imperative of improving student outcomes has been championed at such a high level.

California's is the largest community college system in the nation, and this focus on student completion will have ripple effects around the country.

We applaud California's path-breaking efforts. In particular, we commend its recognition that the system should move students away from unfocused course-taking and into specific academic or vocational pathways or "programs of study" that lead to a college credential or transfer to four-year institutions.

Despite these hopeful advances, our research suggests that the recommendations need to go further. The task force lays out a proposal that would mandate students to enter programs of study, but it does not fully acknowledge colleges' responsibility for providing the tools and resources necessary to help students achieve this milestone.

Currently, student advising at California's community colleges is abysmal: There is one counselor for every 1,000 students. Entering community college, students are confronted with a bewildering array of choices and poor information about available programs, their requirements, and the career and transfer options they lead to. Left alone to navigate this daunting system, it is little wonder that many students flail about, accruing credits while coming no closer to earning a credential – or simply dropping out.

Not surprisingly, the students who suffer most from this system are the most disadvantaged. Studies by the Community College Research Center have found that low-income students are significantly less likely to enter a concentration and, consequently, less likely to earn a credential. These students are often the first in their family to attend college: They have no parents or siblings to advise them; many are juggling work and children, and have little time to develop a network of peers who might help them make better choices.

The task force raises the bar by recommending that students who do not declare a major by the end of their second semester lose enrollment priority and fee waivers. Given California's current class shortages – by last count, 140,000 students were turned away from community colleges due to lack of funding – these are high stakes. Under the current counseling system, this proposal could have the unintended consequence of closing off higher education opportunities to the most disadvantaged students.

The report suggests that a sophisticated online advising and planning tool could circumvent some of the human resource deficiencies in the system. Unfortunately, no available tool has shown itself to be effective in this regard. The center's research suggests that students are more befuddled than helped by available online advising systems – if they even bother to use them at all. Additionally, our research indicates that other forms of online interventions – such as online classes – are the least effective for underprepared and low-income students – precisely the students who will need the most help under the task force's recommendations.

A requirement that community college students enter programs of study their first year must be concomitant with significant improvements in California's system of student advising. One relatively cost-effective way to deliver counseling services to large numbers of students is to require first semester enrollment in well-designed "success courses" that place primary, if not sole, emphasis on developing career or academic goals and an educational plan to achieve those goals.

This approach deserves the task force's attention. Even with such courses, more counselors will be necessary to provide one-on-one guidance. Support services must also be made more intrusive so that students encounter them in all areas of their college experience. For instance, counselors should visit remedial classes where students can schedule appointments to see them and use class time to advise students on the next class in which to enroll to progress along their sequence.

California is moving in the right direction. We look forward to seeing the results of this push to improve college completion rates. But the burden of this success cannot lie entirely on students; the state and system have a responsibility to ensure that all students can meet the new requirements. This responsibility requires an explicit plan for improving student support services. While the exact funding and policy prescriptions to achieve these changes are best left to California leaders to determine, the research is clear that without them, California students will be denied the maximum opportunity for success.

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Thomas Bailey, left, is a professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, and director of the Community College Research Center. Melinda Mechur Karp and Davis Jenkins are senior research associates at Community College Research Center.