Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award
2005 Award Recipient, Education

Jenks Public Schools

Type of Work: Jenks Public Schools is a public school district serving both suburban and urban populations. JPS programs and services include an intergenerational program with pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students and the elderly, a “Parents as Teachers Program” and a student and teacher exchange program with a school in Chengdu, China. The school system has nine schools on five campuses. JPS is the 11th largest school district in Oklahoma, with 9,271 students.

Web site: www.jenksps.org/

Budget: $48 million annually

Workforce: 665 teachers/certified staff, 576 classified (nonteaching) staff

Location: Jenks, Oklahoma, encompassing portions of south and west Tulsa

Highlights

• Forty-two percent of the teaching staff have master’s degrees, 2 percent have doctorates; and 98.5 percent are “highly qualified,” according to No Child Left Behind (NCLB) standards.

• The Academic Performance Index (API) scores for JPS students from 2001 to 2005 exceed the API test scores at the national and state levels. JPS has led the state for K-12 schools of comparable size. The district’s Southeast Elementary School was one of four elementary schools in the state to achieve an API “perfect” score of 1500 points, the target for excellence set by the state to meet the NCLB Act.

• Thirty-seven percent of the district’s class of 2004 demonstrated college-level mastery by earning an AP test score of three or better, compared to the national percentage of 13 percent and the highest state percentage of 21.2 percent.

• The “Edline” program enables direct communication with teachers via computer for both parents and students. The Career Action Planning Program (CAPS) facilitates communication between parents, students, and teachers. Parent attendance at high school parent-teacher conferences increased from below 20 percent to 95 percent since the inception of CAPS in 1997.

• JPS has received local, state, and national recognition for its innovative community partnership where pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classes are held on-site in the Grace Living Center long-term care facility. This intergenerational partnership benefits students, teachers, and elder partners in the JPS community. This program has been recognized by Education Week, CNN News, and People magazine.

• JPS has adopted a team-based learning approach that has resulted in multiple awards and recognition of its students, faculty, and staff for a variety of achievements of its academic programs and services. In the past five years, JPS has had 68 National Merit semifinalists and 64 National Merit finalists; and two Presidential Scholars. Two classroom teachers were selected as Oklahoma Teachers of the Year; both received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. In 2004, a JPS teacher received the Milken Family Foundation Educator Award, which honors outstanding educators.

• JPS’s graduation rates for 2003 to 2005 exceed the graduation rates for a former Baldrige Award recipient, with graduation rates at 93 percent in 2003, 94 percent in 2004, and 95 percent in 2005, compared to the former Baldrige Award recipient’s rates of 90 percent in 2003, 93 percent in 2004, and 94 percent in 2005.

• JPS fifth-grade students’ mathematics proficiency scores were at 89 percent for 2003 and were at 92 percent for 2004, compared to a Baldrige Award recipient’s mathematics proficiency scores at 87 percent for 2003 and at 88 percent for 2004. Reading proficiency scores for JPS fifth-grade students were at 88 percent for 2003 and at 86 percent for 2004, compared to a Baldrige Award recipient’s scores at 80 percent for 2003 and at 78 percent for 2004. JPS eighth-grade students show reading proficiency scores at 89 percent for 2003 and at 96 percent for 2004, compared to a Baldrige Award recipient’s reading proficiency scores at 78 percent for 2003 and at 82 percent for 2004. Mathematics proficiency scores for JPS eighth-grade students were at 88 percent for 2003 and were at 95 percent for 2004, compared to a former Baldrige Award recipient’s scores at 78 percent for 2003 and at 79 percent for 2004.

• JPS students consistently outperformed ACT (a college entrance exam) scores at the state and national levels, with ACT scores increasing from 23 to 23.5 from 2001-2002 to 2004-2005, compared to state and national ACT scores ranging from 20.5 to 21. JPS scores for this time frame placed JPS students in the top national quartile for ACT results. SAT scores for JPS students were consistently above student SAT scores at the state and national levels.

• Drop-out rates, a measure of student satisfaction for JPS students, have decreased steadily from 6.3 percent in 1999 to 1.2 percent at the close of the 2004 school year, which is less than the 1.6 percent rate of a former Baldrige Award recipient.

• JPS demonstrates improving and positive trends for financial and operational results. The Fund Balance (annual carryover of funds) is on track for meeting and achieving a 6 percent balance, a key strategic objective for the district. The balance has improved from 4 percent for the years 2001, 2002, 2003, and from 5 percent in 2004. Also, revenues exceed year-to-date expenditures for 2005. The percent of “yes” votes and the amount approved for bond issues show a positive trend for the years 1999 through 2005. JPS has had 40 consecutive years of successful bond issue elections.

• The teacher/pupil ratios at JPS compare favorably with a former Baldrige Award recipient, with the 2003 ratio at 1 to 16 for JPS and at 1 to 18 for a former Baldrige Award recipient, and with the 2004 ratio at 1 to 16 for JPS compared to a former Baldrige Award recipient at 1 to 20.

• JPS has received national and state recognition for its athletic program achievements. Four current JPS coaches have been selected as “National Coach of the Year.” Jenks High School has been named “School of the Year” by Coaches Aid: Oklahoma High School Sports Magazine, every year since the inception of the award in 2000.

• For 2003 and 2004, the JPS turnover rate for certified staff was 11 percent and 6 percent, respectively, with the national level at 20 percent for both years.
  

Processes

• Through the district’s Strategic Planning Process, JPS senior leaders, in cooperation with the Board of Education (BOE), create a focus on the future, set organizational vision, values, goals, and strategic objectives, and, through a cascading effect, ensure that site and department goals and action plans support the district’s goals, strategic objectives, pillars, core values, mission, and motto (vision). Senior leaders empower the staff by giving them the power and authority to manage day-to-day operations using their best judgment, practicing the JPS core values in decision making and behavior, and thus allowing issues and problems to be resolved at the lowest level.

• Biennially, senior leaders and the BOE meet and utilize the district’s Performance Measurement System to review the status of the school district, as well as the current goals, and they use quality tools to develop new goals and strategic objectives (key measures) that support the district’s motto (vision), mission, core values, and pillars.

• JPS has established four “pillars”—Strong Quality Leadership, Continuous Improvement, Customer Focus, and Systems/Process Focus—that serve as a foundation for the school district. In addition, JPS aligns its goals and action plans to support its strategic objectives, pillars, core values, mission and motto/vision statement, “a tradition of excellence with a vision for tomorrow.”

• JPS sets an expectation for performance excellence that supports its Pillar of Continuous Improvement. Continuous improvement is evaluated using four processes: the Performance Appraisal Review Process; the Comprehensive Local Education Plan (CLEP) in which sites include a Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) component; the Performance Measurement System; and surveys and committee evaluations. Improvements include establishing the “Edline” program which enables parents to have direct communication with teachers, the implementation of the Essential Elements Program to increase opportunities for students to remember what they have learned, the Removing Barriers to AP Enrollment Program, and the provision of annual reports tracking first- through eighth-grade student assessment results.

• To enhance communications with families, more than 90 percent of elementary teachers prepare monthly newsletters, and more than 40 percent have Web pages.

• JPS has a School Emergency Response Team (SERT), composed of administrators, campus police, teachers, a nurse, and staff members. This group meets monthly to develop and refine procedures to provide a standardized emergency response. Procedures include management flow charts, media relations, staff responsibilities, and contingencies for a multitude of events such as fire, weather, power loss, mass disturbance, earthquake, bomb threat, suspicious package, and airplane crash into building (one school is close to a busy regional airport). The group also conducts unannounced prevention exercises approximately two times each year, in which it selects a school site, secures entrances and exits, and conducts a systematic search of backpacks and lockers as students arrive at school. The SERT also coordinates annual full-scale disaster exercises that include collaborating with external agencies, such as emergency management agencies, the FBI, hospitals, fire and police departments, and ambulance services.

• JPS’s key learning-centered system is determined by its mission of preparing all learners for productive, responsible citizenship in an ever-changing world and the Comprehensive Local Education Plan mandates of the state, which include continuous improvement cycles. JPS’s system includes the Curriculum Development Process, the Instructional Process, the Assessment Process, and the School Climate Process. These processes address students’ education, well-being, and success by organizing curriculum and decision making around the entire period of a child’s education, through the use of research-based instructional strategies and differentiation of instruction, by providing performance data to support instructional decision making and to keep parents informed, and by addressing safety, communication, teamwork, and educational experiences to develop character and citizenship.

Leadership/Social Responsibility

• JPS has established several successful partnerships, including partnerships with the Oklahoma Aquarium that allows life/environmental science teachers to participate in training workshops and to integrate the resources of the Aquarium into their classrooms. Another partnership with the Union Public School District, established in 1997, provides opportunities for the two districts to work closely together in providing conference experiences for young students and their families, such as the Writer’s Conference, the Science Conference, and the Math Conference. Each year 500 students and their families attend the Saturday morning conferences.

• JPS considers service learning by students to be part of preparing all students for productive, responsible citizenship. Students are involved in numerous projects to help the community, including the Community Food Bank, Families in Need, Toys for Tots, Relay for Life, Project Angel Tree, Support for the Troops, Game of Giving, Dynamic Dads Winter Coats Project, La-La Lemonade, Sucker Sales, and Recycling Jeans.
  

Created: 11/21/05
Updated: April 2, 2007
Contact: inquiries@nist.gov