
Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award
Baldrige Announcement Baldrige Highlights HCC's Baldrige Application
The United States Department of Commerce has announced that Howard Community College is a winner of the 2019 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in the category of education. The award is the nation’s only presidential-level honor for performance excellence in organizations.
“With an emphasis on efficiency and best practices, the Baldrige public-private partnership generates $1 billion per year in economic impact for the U.S. economy,” said Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. “The Baldrige Award embodies the competitive spirit and commitment to excellence that fuels our economic resurgence and drives our country forward.”
“The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award honors Howard Community College’s shared commitment to continuous quality improvement,” said Dr. Kate Hetherington, president emeritus of Howard Community College. “This commitment has resulted in the college making great strides in closing the achievement gap, increasing completion, and preparing students for the workforce.
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News and Recognition
- Community College Voice Podcast
- Maryland College Receives Prestigious Award
- Quality Digest - Six Healthcare, Nonprofit, and Education Organizations Win Baldrige Awards
- Security Magazine - Healthcare, Nonprofit, Education Organizations Win Baldrige Awards for Performance Excellence
- Greater Baltimore Committee - Howard Community College Wins 2019 Baldrige National Quality Award
- Maryland Association of Counties - Howard Community College Wins National Award
- Community College Daily - Howard Community College wins Baldrige Award
- Baldrige Foundation - Six Health Care, Nonprofit and Education Organizations Win Baldrige Awards for Performance Excellence
- Howard County Journal podcast
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Our Baldrige Journey - Good to Great
2007 – Won the U.S. Senate and Productivity Award
2008 – Developed new mission, vision, values and strategic plan
2009 – Connected action plans across college
2010 – Refreshed Vital Signs (KPIs)
2011 – Invested in measurement tools
2012 – Explored predictors of completion
2013 – Focused on systems thinking
2014 – Enhanced new employee on-boarding
2015 – Tightened focus on strategic goal activities
2016 – Adopted systems model for enterprise projects
2017 – Reviewed core competencies. Baldrige site visit.
Recognition for Category 3 and Category 6
2018 – Better results, increased graduation rates. Baldrige site visit.
Recognition for Category 1
2019 – Increased performance against best practice comparators. Baldrige site visit2019 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Winner
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Frequently Asked Questions
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.