Charting Your Course is the story of 2003 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award winner Community Consolidated School District 15 of Palatine, Illinois. The book shares the story of the school district’s journey toward continuous improvement as they followed the Baldrige Award Criteria. The authors share both the good and the bad results encountered along the way, allowing the reader to learn from his experiences. The book will help other schools answer the many questions that will inevitably come up as they begin to follow the Baldrige criteria, and will help them avoid making some of the same mistakes. PRAISE FOR CHARTING YOUR COURSE "A case study of the only school district in the state of Illinois to earn the top quality award from the Lincoln Foundation for Business Excellence. Charting Your Course is must reading for superintendents and principals who are serious about achieving organizational excellence. In this straightforward account of a school district seriously embracing the Malcolm Baldrige criteria, the authors detail what worked and what went awry, and offer concrete suggestions on avoiding some of their mistakes."- Dr. Paul D. Houston, Executive Director American Association of School Administrators

This book is a fictionalized account of one teacher’s effort in applying process improvement principles to her teaching practices. Lisa’s story is based on actual practice, and resulted in an innovative application of the lean waste-elimination approach to classroom teaching and learning. It also resulted in Lisa completing the delivery of her entire curriculum in the school year in a way that allowed students to master the material, as evidenced by significant growth in student performance scores on the standardized achievement test in her content area. The methods and tools described are based on proven lean techniques and sound education practice. Lean is a program of organizational improvement that empowers each and every worker in a school system—from student through superintendent—to increase his or her personal performance and job satisfaction through process improvement. Lean engages everyone in streamlining his or her work processes by identifying and eliminating the steps within each process that are wasteful, unnecessary, or do not contribute value to—and may even prohibit the person from doing or completing—the work. By incorporating a value-adding approach system-wide, schools can become more efficient in their operations and more effective at delivering their services, optimize the learning performance of all students, and create a culture of success and satisfaction for all. Includes an introduction by Norman Bodek. "An inspiring story of how good management can work wonders in the classroom. Great, jargon-free examples of lean principles applied to the critically important work of teaching our children. This is a must-read for teachers and parents...Wonderful book and an enjoyable read!" Dr. Peter Ward Richard Ross Chair in Management, Fisher College of Management, Ohio State University Chairman, LEAN Academic Network "The value of this book is demonstrating ultimately the process of continuous improvement applied to students in the classroom who see themselves as a team learning how to continuously improve upon an improvement process. It also demonstrates clearly how lean principles can be adapted to the classroom, because an educational system is replete with many “processes revolving around the delivery of instructional services." Dr. Mary Jane Guy Professor of Education Leadership Winona State University "After reading Optimizing Student Learning, I was so inspired to take a hard look at my classroom and how I could improve it. I took immediate steps to begin putting the information from the book into practice including, chunking the curriculum, utilizing short cycle assessment more effectively, and teaching basic study skills that can be used in all subject areas. I was amazed at the results...No matter where you are in your teaching career, this book has something to offer you. You owe it to yourself and your students to check it out for yourself. Although the premise of organization and pre-planning is a major theme in teacher preparation programs, the plan as put forth here is also designed to enhance teaching and learning for everyone." Melissa Unklesby Secondary School Teacher Beach City, Ohio

For decades, this book has served as a guide to organizations that document their continuous improvement efforts using Baldrige Award-type management systems. Readers will learn what each area of the system means for organizations and how the synergy between process-oriented parts—leadership; strategy; customers; measurement, analysis, and knowledge management; workforce; and operations—can lead to excellent performance results. This book provides a valuable, step-by-step approach to help identify and put in place properly focused continuous improvement systems. Seven types of information are provided in this book for each of the Items in Categories 1 through 7 of the 2021–2022 Baldrige Framework and Performance Excellence Criteria: 1. The actual language of each Item, including Notes 2. A plain-English explanation of the requirements and rationale for each Item 3. A table showing the similar requirements of the Criteria 4. A summary of the requirements of each Item in flowchart form 5. The key linkages between each Item and other Items 6. An explanation of some potential adverse consequences 7. Examples of effective practices Features of this edition include: A stakeholder matrix table of contents that identifies relevant material within the book for key stakeholder groups: senior leaders, examiners, performance excellence initiative leaders, application writers, and program administrators Tables for each Criteria Item showing the similar expectations of the Criteria award (and award program administrators) presented only once at the scoring level where the expectation first appears to help examiners determine at what level an expectation belongs Online resources, including scoring calibration guides for education, healthcare, and business/nonprofit/government organizations, a guide to self-assessment of organizations and management systems, and a guide to the alignment of Baldrige, Six Sigma, Lean, and Balanced Scorecard A new crosswalk between Baldrige and ISO standards and a set of global performance excellence best practices Information on other award programs throughout the world such as the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM), which has undergone significant changes in the 2020 model, and the China Association for Quality

This handbook is a comprehensive reference designed to help professionals address organizational issues from the application of the basic principles of management to the development of strategies needed to deal with today’s technological and societal concerns. The fifth edition of the ASQ Certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence Handbook (CMQ/OE) has undergone some significant content changes in order to provide more clarity regarding the items in the body of knowledge (BoK). Examples have been updated to reflect more current perspectives, and new topics introduced in the most recent BoK are included as well. This handbook addresses: • Historical perspectives relating to the continued improvement of specific aspects of quality management • Key principles, concepts, and terminology • Benefits associated with the application of key concepts and quality management principles • Best practices describing recognized approaches for good quality management • Barriers to success, common problems you may encounter, and reasons why some quality initiatives fail • Guidance for preparation to take the CMQ/OE examination A well-organized reference, this handbook will certainly help individuals prepare for the ASQ CMQ/OE exam. It also serves as a practical, day-to-day guide for any professional facing various quality management challenges.

The ASQ Certified Quality Improvement Associate (CQIA) certification introduces the basics of quality to organizations and individuals who are new to quality. This book, and the Body of Knowledge (BoK) it supports, form a foundation for applying proven quality principles and practices that are used around the world. This handbook follows the CQIA span in both content and sequence. Let it serve as your guide in preparing for the ASQ CQIA examination, and refer to it frequently as you learn and implement these ideas and tools in your organization.

Assessing Business Excellence presents a strategic framework for business excellence and total quality management and shows how you can be actively involved in continuous improvement by systematically reviewing your business activities and results against holistic business excellence frameworks. For all practitioners who seek to use total quality management to improve their organization's effectiveness, efficiency and responsiveness, this title is the essential route map to business excellence. From two leading expert authors comes a book where the most recognized quality award criteria are used to explore the concepts of business excellence and self-assessment. This book: * Introduces the major business excellence and total quality frameworks including The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and the European Quality Award and ISO9000:2000 * Compares the frameworks and identifies their strengths and limitations * Introduces the self-assessment process * Explores the main approaches to self-assessment * Illustrates the practical benefits of self-assessment through case examples

Will help org. respond to the diverse needs of students, the need for enhanced curriculum and educ. delivery methods, changing regulatory require., demanding accreditation require., and the growing role of the Internet. Whether your org. is small or large, is involved in K-12 or higher educ., or has one facility or multiple sites, these Criteria provide a valuable framework that can help you plan in an uncertain environment. Use the Criteria to assess performance on a range of key indicators: student learning, student and stakeholder satisfaction, educ. design and delivery, financial, faculty and staff development and well-being, and operations. Can help you align resources; improve commun., productivity, and effectiveness; and achieve strategic goals. Illus.

For decades, this book has served as a guide to organizations that document their continuous improvement efforts using Baldrige Award-type management systems. Readers will learn what each area of the system means for organizations and how the synergy between process-oriented parts—leadership; strategy; customers; measurement, analysis, and knowledge management; workforce; and operations—can lead to excellent performance results. This book provides a valuable, step-by-step approach to help identify and put in place properly focused continuous improvement systems. Seven types of information are provided in this book for each of the Items in Categories 1 through 7 of the 2021–2022 Baldrige Framework and Performance Excellence Criteria: 1. The actual language of each Item, including Notes 2. A plain-English explanation of the requirements and rationale for each Item 3. A table showing the similar requirements of the Criteria 4. A summary of the requirements of each Item in flowchart form 5. The key linkages between each Item and other Items 6. An explanation of some potential adverse consequences 7. Examples of effective practices Features of this edition include: • A stakeholder matrix table of contents that identifies relevant material within the book for key stakeholder groups: senior leaders, examiners, performance excellence initiative leaders, application writers, and program administrators • Tables for each Criteria Item showing the similar expectations of the Criteria award (and award program administrators) presented only once at the scoring level where the expectation first appears to help examiners determine at what level an expectation belongs • Online resources, including scoring calibration guides for education, healthcare, and business/nonprofit/government organizations, a guide to self-assessment of organizations and management systems, and a guide to the alignment of Baldrige, Six Sigma, Lean, and Balanced Scorecard • A new crosswalk between Baldrige and ISO standards and a set of global performance excellence best practices • Information on other award programs throughout the world such as the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM), which has undergone significant changes in the 2020 model, and the China Association for Quality Mark L. Blazey has retired from more than 26 years as president of Quantum Performance Group, a management consulting and training firm specializing in organization assessment and high-performance systems development. Paul L. Grizzell is president of Core Values Partners, a perfor mance excellence consulting firm that helps organizations focus, align, and accelerate their improvement efforts through the use of the Baldrige Framework for Performance Excellence, the EFQM Model, the China Quality Award, and other integrated management systems.