Baldrige Bites

What is Baldrige in Education?

With the start of the 2008-2009 school year at Ellis Elementary we are starting our fourth year as a Baldrige in Education School. Baldrige is a framework for continuous improvement and was named after Malcolm Baldrige, a former Secretary of Commerce. It was originally started in 1987 as a way for American businesses to look at best practices and to measure excellence in the work place. The education version of Baldrige started in 1998 as a framework to improve school performance and looks at the process and practice needed to put systems in place to continually improve student learning and build toward excellence.

          Baldrige focuses our efforts:

1.     To involve students, parents and staff.

2.     To set measureable goals and plans for achieving those goals.

3.     To make sure plans and goals are communicated and understood.

4.     To monitor our progress and make changes to improve results.

There are two main principles of Baldrige:

1.     I am responsible for my own learning.

2.     I am response-able to the success of the group.

Throughout the school and in classrooms you will:

1.     Hear discussions about quality work and behaviors.

a.      What it means to be a quality student, teacher, Principal.

b.     Characteristics and behaviors that promote “quality”.

2.     See data used and displayed.

a.      School Data (Data Wall)

b.     Classroom Data (Data wall)

c.     Individual Data (Student Data Notebook)

3.     See vision, mission and goals set.

a.      School-wide Vision, Mission and Goals posted

b.     Classroom Vision, Mission and Goals posted

4.     See measurement tools used to monitor and adjust as needed.

a.      Graphs

b.     Enthusiasm and Learning chart

c.     Radar Chart