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Illinois School Board Journal
September/October 2002
Using the 'B' word
by Cynthia S. Woods
Cynthia Woods is assistant director for advocacy for Illinois Association of School Boards and serves as liaison between the association and other organizations, as well as aiding in grass roots lobbying efforts.
Where has the idea come from that using the word "Baldrige" in referring to education is profane? How can quality be seen as wicked?
Because public school bad-mouthing is a popular pastime, those in public education policy struggle to both improve and make credible the reputation of a public school education. With the onset of standards-based education and an increased call for accountability, teacher quality and community involvement, as well as increased pressure from the federal government, schools are seeking to find a process to improve and track their progress. Baldrige offers this opportunity.
Baldrige addresses how organizational values are imbedded and reflected in a district, along with expectations and performance. Success at what you are doing becomes the value, not winning an award. Yet understanding exactly what Baldrige is and does continues to frustrate educators.
Beginning the process
Baldrige is a commitment from boardroom to classroom, and not necessarily statehouse to schoolhouse as some think. The framework is based on core values and concepts imbedded in seven criteria of excellence for education. Yet districts have tackled the criteria in different ways.
David Van Winkle, superintendent of Valley View Community Unit School District 365U in Romeoville, started his district's Baldrige process with building principals. They were looking for an effective systems theory, identifying the key characteristics of a high-performing organization and what a school district strategic plan that was data based would look like when the Baldrige process "fell out."
It was the best framework to drive the characteristics identified by the principals, according to Van Winkle. After the principals' training, the next step was to help the board understand the criteria. The board adopted an agenda for understanding and using the system, and their ownership in the process began.
Training was done through the Pinelas Quality Academy and Shipley and Associates, two highly qualified groups involved for many years with the inception of using Baldrige. Classroom teacher training followed board training. "We formed the Baldrige cadre with building-based teams, identified to encourage and lead one another forward in the implementation of the process," Van Winkle said.
Palatine Community Consolidated School District 15 began the process quite differently. The district already was involved in "random acts of improvement," according to board member Louis Sands, but wanted a process that would bring focus and provide a measurement tool. He said the board role was "to establish the basic policy to take the board in this direction."
The Palatine board engaged the community through its District Advisory Committee for Educational Excellence, a community-based group already in place. The committee asked for feedback from the community-at-large. This helped the community buy into ownership of the process as well. Districts must have absolute top-down support, according to Sands, but the change must come from the bottom up.
The outcome was a long-term plan with key goals based on a quality approach for continuous improvement. The board then voted (7-0) to undertake the Baldrige process using the award system of the Lincoln Foundation, the Illinois state arm of Baldrige.
Continuous improvement
Undertaking the Baldrige process provides a framework for continuous improvement. Once your district has completed a cycle of improvement, you start all over and seek further continuous improvement. Does this send a message that you are never done (you aren't) and thus foster discouragement? Baldrige does not say you cannot stop and celebrate what you have accomplished! Your success is as vital to enjoy as the work to improve.
One of the greatest hidden rewards of "doing Baldrige" is that eventually the cycle of continuous improvement becomes a part of you and how you think. It is no longer something you work at, but rather it is part of your value system. Commitment to the process is essential for the success of continuous quality improvement.
Data, data, data
Everything within the Baldrige framework is driven by data. Data drives where a district is headed, depending on where they started. Is it the stereotypical idea of the drudgery of collecting and recording data that becomes discouraging for districts to undertake?
Data is not necessarily bean counting. It is that "measurable tool." Use of the seven Education Criteria is intended to address all organizational requirements, but its primary emphasis is on teaching and learning. The focus on teaching and learning is important because those are the principal goals of educational organizations.
Data collected from buildings reveals what and how teachers teach and what kids learn. Joan Vydra, principal of Briar Glen Elementary School in Glen Ellyn Community Consolidated School District 89, has been using Baldrige in her building for five years. To see what a building and its classrooms can look like undertaking a Baldrige perspective, visit their Web site: http://www.ccsd89.org/BG/BriarGlen. It should make you smile to see accountability as fun.
Leadership
Perhaps the most crucial aspect for boards of education undertaking Baldrige is the leadership component, since boards of education are the primary "leadership" in this framework. Referred to as "senior leaders," boards provide guidance to the district. They are responsible for determining and implementing the organization's values, short- and long-term directions and performance expectations.
Leadership is expected to provide an environment that promotes ethical values, equity, empowerment, innovation, safety, organizational agility and organizational faculty/staff learning. They also need to translate the organizational performance reviews into priorities for improvement and opportunities for innovation.
At the same time they must be responsible to the public and its concerns, while strengthening the key communities defined by the district. And, they must communicate all of this positively. This helps support the focus to align all the systems in the model.
BiEIN
Illinois is one of six states (along with Indiana, Maryland, New Mexico, Ohio and Texas) that have a partnership with 26 leading national education and business organizations to form the Baldrige in Education Initiative (BiEIN). BiEIN uses the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Criteria for Performance Excellence as a framework for restructuring education and improving student performance. Illinois also has a statewide Baldrige group, The Lincoln Foundation for Business Excellence, which includes the Lincoln/Baldrige framework for continuous improvement of student learning.
Illinois' vision is to provide the state with an infrastructure to scale up the implementation of Baldrige at the state level, in state organizations and in all interested districts and schools throughout Illinois. Its vision is excellence and equity in Illinois education from preschool through college.
The goal is to build the capacity to accelerate and sustain continuous improvement in student achievement and system performance by:
Lots of lofty goals, lots of big words
Baldrige tends to put people off by the very rigor of its goals and expectations. However, with the focus on learning-centered education, most districts are seeking opportunities to improve their results. Add to that the hammer of the Illinois Learning Standards and the continuous improvement demanded by the No Child Left Behind Act, and you have a system that will drive your district to make these improved results.
Yet here we have "results-oriented," "implement and deploy," "data-driven," "system-wide assessment," "external assessment and feedback," "benchmarks," etc., used as descriptors for implementing the Baldrige process. This list is hard to pronounce and spell, let alone understand!
But the road to quality improvement is not easy. Baldrige extracts a rigor for quality that one would hope all organizations would strive to achieve. Rigor helps ensure that quality is achieved and maintained. It demands a discipline at the outset that can turn to an internalized passion of action.
School boards should want to provide the best possible learning environment for children. If this means rigor, if this means continuous improvement and if this means tough moves, isn't it worth it?
Baldrige looks at the entire system, not just the district itself. It looks at all the people who interact with the district and touches everyone. It is inclusive and democratic in its core.
Baldrige is really not about an award. It is about being better, and that is the true meaning of the "B" word!
References:
L/BiEIN Web site: http://www.biein.org/
Baldrige Web site, National Quality Program: http://www.quality.nist.gov/
The Lincoln Foundation for Business Excellence Web site: http://www.lincolnaward.org/