Joe Alexander

Education Foreword - 4th edition

 

For two decades, U.S. organizations have looked to the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award criteria as a framework for driving performance excellence. While initially created for the purpose of improving domestic competitiveness here in the U.S., we are now witnessing the Baldrige criteria being adopted more on a global scale. At last count, organizations in more than 70 countries were at various stages of maturity in using Baldrige to enhance organizational performance and international competitiveness. In short, we now know that the concepts embedded within Baldrige are universal principles that adapt very readily across cultures and industry sectors.


As a result of this built-in adaptability, it should have been of little surprise when a decision was reached to create a separate Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award category for “Education.” Yet there were certainly those skeptics who maintained that what worked for businesses simply would not translate to the educational environment. So in 2001, when Pearl River School District (NY) used Baldrige to approach best-in-state student learning results while simultaneously reaching 98% faculty and staff satisfaction, people took note. That same year, the rural Chugach School District (AK) demonstrated how it had used the framework to drive innovation and orchestrate a complete turnaround in multiple performance areas, including student learning and employee turnover. Also in 2001, the University of Wisconsin-Stout showed how Baldrige could be employed in a university environment, with near 100% employer satisfaction regarding the graduate preparedness for the workforce. And two years later, the Community Consolidated School District (IL), a K-8 school system doubled student interest in learning and learning outcomes while simultaneously slashing staff turnover.


In the Monfort College of Business at the University of Northern Colorado, we were inspired by these examples and proceeded to adopt Baldrige principles to take our organization to the next level of performance. Following only two annual improvement cycles in 2004, we were observing dramatic improvements in our results, including enhanced student learning, as well as near-perfect student and parent satisfaction scores. More recently, in 2005, Jenks Public Schools (OK) showed how Baldrige had been used to enhance basic and advanced student learning performance, and Richland Community College (TX) demonstrated how it had used Baldrige to improve student retention and performance even in the face of declining public funding support. And most recently in 2008, Iredell-Statesville’s (NC) K-12 public school system has shown that Baldrige implementation can allow a district with one of the lowest per pupil funding levels in the state to achieve student learning results that are now approaching best-in-class.


Few who have reviewed the evidence would continue to question the applicability of Baldrige criteria to the educational setting. As a leader, whether your responsibilities include a single school or an entire educational system, you owe it to yourself, your students, and your many other stakeholders to fully consider what using the Baldrige tools could mean to the future of your organization.


Why use Latham and Vinyard’s Baldrige User’s Guide?  Think of it as organizational steroids - all with no harmful side effects and 100% legal. For the beginner, the criteria will quickly become more understandable, and even the more experienced Baldrige user will begin to see previously unseen connections within the criteria.


I wish each of you the best in your own professional (and personal) journeys to performance excellence!


Joe Alexander

former Dean - Monfort College of Business, Baldrige Recipient (Education) 2004

University of Northern Colorado

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Dr Alexander is also a member of the Monfort Institute Board of Advisors and 2009 Chair of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Foundation’s Board of Directors.