Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award

Why use the Baldrige framework?

Howard Community College started its Baldrige journey in 2005 to strengthen itself as an organization. Through its journey, HCC has developed a new mission, vision, and values. We connected our institutional plans to our strategic plan. We invested in tools to measure our work, processes, and outcomes more effectively. We committed ourselves to our mission and to achieving our strategic goals. This hard work has paid off as we are seeing better results in closing the achievement gap, increasing completion, and preparing students for the workforce.

We are a continuous quality improvement organization, and it has been a shared effort from day one. The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award would not have been possible without faculty, staff, and trustees striving to make HCC an excellent organization.
 

What does it mean for HCC to have won the Baldrige Award?

This is an outstanding honor for the college. Since this journey began in 2005, HCC has always focused on continuous quality improvement and building a stronger, more excellent organization. A shared commitment to the HCC mission, vision, and values has resulted in this success for faculty, staff, and students.

How have you improved as an organization?

HCC is committed to its mission, vision, values, and strategic goals, which has resulted in increases in student success and graduation for all students. HCC has systematically focused on closing the achievement gap and increasing completion, which has led to the following highlights:

• HCC tripled the graduation rates for first-time-to-college Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino students within two years of entry.
• HCC increased its graduation rate by 168% within two years of entry, from the 2008 to the 2017 entering cohorts of first-time-to-college students.
• HCC outperformed its peer community colleges with its growth rate of more than 100% for associate degrees awarded for over 10 years.
• 100 percent of graduates in the areas of nursing, radiologic technology, dental hygiene, medical laboratory technician, diagnostic medical sonography, emergency medical services, and physical therapy assistant found employment after graduating.

At its heart, HCC is a continuous quality improvement organization, and this focus shone through in the Baldrige application and site visit. The Baldrige program has been a shared effort from day one, and it would not have been possible without faculty, staff, and trustees striving to make HCC a better organization.

What is the benefit of Baldrige?

The Baldrige program focuses on continuous quality improvement, encouraging organizations to measure their work and make the necessary changes to strengthen the organization. Near the beginning of the Baldrige journey, HCC developed a new mission, vision, and values. Later, HCC connected institutional plans to its strategic plan. HCC invested in tools to measure work, processes, and outcomes more effectively. In addition, college faculty and staff committee to the mission and strategic plan. This effort has resulted in the best results yet, and closing the achievement gap, increasing completion, and preparing students for the workforce.

What’s next for HCC?

HCC will continue its journey to excellence as a Baldrige winner. Following the Baldrige framework does not stop because of the award. Rather, it propels you to be even better.

The college will receive the Baldrige Award at The Quest for Excellence Conference on March 24, 2020, in Baltimore. This four-day conference will also feature presentations by the college and other award-winning organizations.