Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award
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The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award is the nation’s highest presidential honor for performance excellence through innovation, improvement and visionary leadership.
Since 1988, 106 organizations have earned the award named after Malcolm Baldrige, the 26th Secretary of Commerce. Congress created the award in 1987 to enhance the competitiveness and performance of U.S. businesses.
Baldrige helps organizations improve and succeed in the competitive global marketplace. It is the only public-private partnership and Presidential award program dedicated to improving U.S. organizations. In collaboration with the greater Baldrige community, the Baldrige Program offers:
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Recognitions |
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Senator Cornyn Recognizes Alamo Colleges District For National Baldrige Award (May 28, 2019) Bexar County Commissioners Court Honors Alamo Colleges (May 22, 2019) |
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Resources |
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Baldrige Examiner Presentation (PDF) |
Frequently Asked Questions
The Baldrige Performance Excellence Program is a national public-private partnership run by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
The Baldrige Program educates organizations in performance excellence management and administers the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award the nation's highest Presidential honor for performance excellence through innovation, improvement and visionary leadership.
The Baldrige Program's main focus areas are to help organizations achieve best-in-class levels of performance; identify and recognize role-model organizations; identify and share best management practices, principles, and strategies.
- The Baldrige National Quality Award process enables us to evaluate our entire organization through a team of trained third-party examiners.
- We will receive a feedback report indicating the areas for us to continue to improve and accelerate our journey to excellence.
- Use of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Criteria correlates strongly with improved outcomes.
Our goal is to improve the Alamo Colleges District system by improving in all areas.
We want to be the best we can be in meeting the needs of all our stakeholders.
Consequently, we have assessed ourselves against the Baldrige Criteria as a way to obtain actionable feedback to accelerate our journey towards performance excellence.
Examiners will assess our entire organization.
They will identify the strengths they find as well as our opportunities for improvement. They will also identify exemplary areas that we could share as "best practices" with other organizations of higher education in the nation.
All Baldrige award applicants receive detailed feedback from the Baldrige examiners. The Baldrige Feedback Reports often contain comments on as many as 100 areas of strength and opportunity. Surveys show that more than 90% of applicants use the received feedback in their strategic planning and decision making.
In order to be eligible to apply for the Baldrige Award, organizations must earn the award at their respective state level. The Alamo Colleges District DSO submitted an application for the Texas Award for Performance Excellence (TAPE) – led by the Quality Texas Foundation – in October 2015, received a site visit in January 2016 and was awarded the 2016 TAPE later that year.
The award was the culmination of a nine-year journey and reflected the outstanding dedication of all DSO and college teams and the strong leadership of the Board of Trustees. TAPE recipients are selected based on the same performance criteria used at the national level for the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, which awards the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.
As a state awardee, the district was then eligible to submit its application for the 2018 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in April 2018. Demonstrating the relevance and value of the Baldrige Excellence Framework to organizations of multiple sizes and sectors, a few awards are given annually across six industries (manufacturing, service, small business, education, health care, and nonprofit) representing every major region of the United States.
Innovation Highlights
AlamoADVISEAdvisors in the Alamo Colleges District undergo extensive, rigorous training to receive their certification. They strive to be current on employment trends and skills needed in the workplace and figuring out roadmaps tailored to the individual needs of each student. |
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AlamoINSTITUTESIn the Alamo Colleges District, we dare our students to dream with a purpose and start their journey in one of our six new Institutes. |
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High School ProgramsThe five colleges in the Alamo Colleges District Family partner with more than 100 high schools to help over 13,000 students a year get ahead. |
Thank You!
Thanks again to everyone involved in the Baldrige 2018 Site Visit.
If you participated and are not listed, please let us know at dst-webmaster@thefunkywrap.com.