Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award
2005 Award Recipient, Education

Richland College

Type of Work: Richland College (RLC), one of seven two-year community colleges in the Dallas County Community College District in Dallas, Texas, provides credit and continuing education courses to more than 20,000 students each semester (14,500 credit and almost 6,000 continuing education) students, ranging from adolescents to senior citizens, who speak 90 different first languages.  RLC’s key student segment is the transfer student, whose primary goal is further education at a four-year university.  RLC is the first community college to receive a Baldrige Award.

Web site: http://www.rlc.dcccd.edu/

Budget: Approximately $46 million

Workforce: 558 full-time faculty, support staff, and administrators; 811 part-time faculty and seasonal staff

Location: Dallas, Texas

Highlights

• RLC has shown consistent improvements in measures of student success. The overall percent of students achieving a grade average of C or better has improved from 65 percent in 1999-2000 to 70 percent in 2004-05.  There have been corresponding increases in student performance in each target market program area including transfer and technical/occupational.  RLC outperformed its three peers in student success measures in 2004. 

• In the five most important student satisfaction measures (classes scheduled, class time convenience, quality of instruction, variety of courses, and intellectual growth), RLC increased its levels of satisfaction and surpassed the national norm over the past four years. Overall, RLC was above the Noel Levitz Student Satisfaction Survey norm on 42 of the 79 survey items.  (The Noel Levitz Student Satisfaction Survey is a nationally recognized survey of student satisfaction used at community colleges and four-year institutions.)

• RLC has improved its student retention rate, from outperforming only one of its five peer institutions in 1999 to achieving its target in 2003 and outscoring four of its five peer institutions.  RLC also demonstrated positive trends for retention rates for all credit students, as well as for African-American, Hispanic, and Asian students, and for students in the district’s 48-credit-hour core curriculum, transferable to all Texas public colleges and universities.  

• RLC’s enrollment has increased from about 12,500 credit students in 2000 to about 14,500 in 2005—an increase of approximately 16 percent—and has exceeded local competitors in all five years, including the next highest performer by more than 3,000 in 2005.  Enrollment for Rising Star, a donor-funded scholarship program, focused on students at risk of not succeeding in school, has grown from about 180 in 2001 to about 450 in 2005, which exceeded the target for enrollment by approximately 48 percent.  

• RLC has developed and supports a strong cadre of adjunct faculty, now approximately 60 percent of the total faculty.  As a response to budget demands, adjunct instructors are used to respond quickly to changes in the market, to enhance practical application experience, and to help control the cost of instruction.  Processes addressing adjuncts’ motivation, recognition, and evaluation have been developed to ensure their inclusion within the organization.  Adjunct faculty members have a separate support office, are invited to participate in department meetings and RLC’s annual meeting for all staff and are encouraged to attend skill-enhancement training. 
  
• RLC faculty’s use of eCampus technology, a tool which provides discussions, assignments, and grades online, has risen steadily from less than 10 percent in 2001 to 37 percent in spring 2005 in credit classes, exceeding best-peer performance in 2005. 

• RLC’s strategic/operational planning approach is a year-long series of steps designed to monitor internal progress in monthly Key Performance Indicator (KPI)/Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) reviews.  As part of this process, the senior leadership team meets with learning-centered and stakeholder-focused councils, committees, and teams to gather input for the strategic planning cycle.  Institutional research staff work with each department and function to help assure alignment among their KPIs and RLC’s Strategic Planning Priorities (SPPs) and overall KPIs.  With this information, key work groups develop departmental action plans.  Senior leaders and work groups monitor progress toward goals, adherence to the budget, and strategic actions throughout the year.  When gaps are identified, they are considered for a formal improvement project. 

• Faculty teams update their QEPs each semester with three to five learning-based outcomes; support staff update their QEPs with two student support process outcomes.  Department action plans are updated annually as part of the Strategic Planning Process.  The Quality Assurance Committee reviews QEPs for completeness, while vice presidents review department action plans to assure that all organizational action plans are addressed.

• RLC/DCCCD helped found and/or participates in several best-in-class organizations, such as the League for Innovation in the Community College and the Continuous Quality Improvement Network to provide data for improvement efforts.  Annual professional development opportunities for all employees and QEP discipline and workgroup teams further support an environment of organizational and personal learning.

• RLC’s interlocking council structure and shared leadership approach provide the organizational infrastructure for managing work and jobs.  Five student-centered areas—the Office of Student Learning, the Office of Student Development, the Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Economic Development, the Office of Resource Development and Workforce Training, and the Office of Institutional Advancement—and three in institutional support areas—Financial Services, Facilities Services, and Employee Services and Professional Development—are distinct entities designed to balance employees’ skill levels across the organization and to promote collaboration.  In addition, the Council for Teaching and Learning and the Council for Community Building facilitate cooperation, best practice sharing, and knowledge sharing to improve student learning.

• RLC’s president and vice presidents participate on local school district and area university teams, and the college is involved in partnerships with area businesses and community organizations that tie to the RLC mission of building community.  RLC’s monthly KPI review process helps track relationships and considers strategies for maintaining relationships with stakeholder groups. 

• RLC has a well-defined process for routine review of its organizational performance, which has gone through multiple cycles of improvement.  Monthly, the ThunderTeam, the senior leadership team, reviews KPI performance against the strategic plans, improvement opportunities, and challenges.  When discrepancies are identified, the ThunderTeam requests its members to “drill down” into the organization through its various councils to determine root causes and identify corrective actions. 

• The ThunderWellness Program is designed to improve every employee’s mind-body-spirit health; employees have a plan that addresses their respective wellness activities.  Fitness Center staff design a comprehensive exercise program for those who use the Center.  In addition, several indoor and outdoor spaces are available for contemplation and reflection.
  
  
• RLC’s systematic process for design and evaluation of learning-centered processes utilizes a combination of qualitative, quantitative, in-process formative and end-process summative measures to ensure process requirements are met and to manage processes during day-to-day operations.  In addition, standardized process drivers, such as measurements for its many KPIs, and defined curricula for learning processes help ensure a repeatable system is used to meet requirements.  Advisory committees, class participation, e-mail, and surveys all provide real-time input that can be used to meet requirements and to make real-time adjustments. 

• RLC’s leadership system, guided by its ThunderTeam, provides an aligned and integrated approach that helps ensure broad stakeholder input in updating, communicating, and implementing the college’s vision, mission, purpose, values, and strategic planning priorities.  RLC’s committee and council structure allows for broad representation and input from faculty and staff, students, community members, and other key stakeholders.

• The President’s Cabinet includes representatives from the faculty and student associations, as well as administrators, deans, directors, and professional support staff.

• RLC’s established standards and policies for ethical and regulatory compliance, which include the Student Code of Conduct and Academic Honesty Statement, the Code of Ethical Conduct, Affirmative Action, and vendor selection processes, are facilitated through professional development, monitoring systems, and key practices.  Cycles of improvement have resulted in development of the Self-Control Audit, in which employees respond annually to questions about internal controls and ethical and legal behaviors, and on-line Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) training. 
  
  
• RLC’s across-the-curriculum Service Learning program sends students to 68 community organizations that support “community-building” learning.  Senior leaders participate on eleven chamber of commerce boards (four ethnic, two international).  ThunderTeam and other faculty and staff serve on boards or committees and give volunteer service hours to various agencies, including Dallas Peace Center, Sustainable Dallas, Dallas Metroplex Homeless Alliance, and The Family Place.

Created: 11/22/05
Updated: 11/22/05
Contact: inquiries@nist.gov