How can the Baldrige Education Criteria for Performance Excellence improve your school?

The Baldrige Education Criteria for Performance Excellence focuses on results in the key areas of student learning; processes; students and other customers (parents or colleges, and possibly community-workforce rolls); education institution workforce; leadership and governance; and budget, finance, and markets.

The Education Criteria is not prescriptive in nature but results oriented.  It will not prescribe the tools, processes, or structure you should use to ensure success.  The Education Criteria is more a systematic approach to organizational assessment.  The road-way to improved performance is aided by focusing on the measures associated with those key areas mentioned above. 

In the Education Criteria, the concept of excellence includes three components: (1) a well-conceived and well-executed assessment strategy; (2) year-to-year improvement in key measures and indicators of performance, especially student learning; and (3) demonstrated leadership in performance and performance improvement relative to comparable organizations and appropriate benchmarks.

The Education Criteria build alignment across your organization by making connections between and reinforcing measures derived from your organization’s processes and strategy.  These measures tie directly to student, other customer, and stakeholder value and to overall performance.  When these measures are used, activities are channeled in consistent directions with less need for detailed procedures, centralized decision-making, or overly complex process management.  Your communication plan is therefore wrapped around consistent performance requirements and lead to increased support to your education organization.

The Baldrige-based approach all starts with increased, frank and open communication with your customers and stakeholders.  A move toward a better understanding of your organization starts with completing the Organizational Profile.  Even if you never complete the entire comprehensive submission for examination, the effort given to completing the Organizational Profile will garner a better understanding and insight into your organizational performance and provide “self-help” in determining your next steps.