Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award
2003 Award Recipient, Education Category

Community Consolidated School District 15

• In the 2002-03 school year, 84 percent of second-grade students were reading at or above grade level, nearly 35 percent above the national average.

• Turnover rate for certified staff was 11.7 percent for 2003-03, compared to a national average of 20 percent.

• The district determines its “market performance” by calculating the dollar cost per percentage point of student performance on state learning standards tests. At $111.93, the district outperformed three comparison districts which ranged from $118.57 to $122.36.

• From 2001-02 to 2002-03, eighth-grade students’ “enthusiasm for learning,” a key performance target, increased from 42 percent to 82 percent for reading, from about 50 percent to about 80 percent for math, and from about 42 percent to about 82 percent for science.
  
  
  
  
  

Community Consolidated School District 15

Type of Work: Community Consolidated School District 15 (D15) is a kindergarten through eighth-grade school system serving 12,390 students in all or part of seven municipalities in northwest suburban Chicago. Its student population includes 37.5 percent minority students and 32.5 percent at the low-income level. Approximately 32 percent of D15’s students come from non-English-speaking backgrounds; 72 different languages are spoken in the homes of its students. The school system has 14 kindergarten through sixth-grade schools, three junior high schools, and one alternative school. D15 operates its own transportation, maintenance, technology, and food services departments.

Budget: $146.9 million
Workforce: 1,898 faculty and staff
Location: Palatine, Ill.

Quality and Performance Results

• To most effectively serve its diverse student population, D15 has implemented a wide array of programs and services to help all students reach performance goals. These include intensive reading intervention programs in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade; the Soar to Success program to accelerate reading growth for children in grades three through six; and Read 180, which combines technology with high-interest, age-appropriate print materials for children in junior high and targeted elementary schools. Programs for English Language Learners include bilingual or English as a Second Language classes and one-on-one or small group sessions.

• As a result of these programs, many students are now meeting goals and leaving these programs at an increased rate. For example, in the 2002-03 school year, 84 percent of D15’s second-grade students were reading at or above grade level. This is an improvement of approximately 10 percentage points since 2000-01 and is nearly 35 percentage points above the national average.

• The rate at which special education students are meeting goals has shown steady improvement since 1998-99, reaching approximately 14 percent in 2002-03, significantly higher than both national and state comparisons of about 5 percent. For English Language Learners, the rate has increased from 8 percent in 1998-99 to approximately 15 percent in 2002-03. In one group of kindergarten students, 18 percent required intervention services when entering school, but this number was reduced to 1 percent by fourth grade. These rates exceed national and state comparisons.

• D15 third- and eighth-grade gifted students participating in the 2001-02 World Class Tests for math and problem solving had a higher pass percentage rate than those from the other countries participating: the United Kingdom, Australia, Hong Kong, and New Zealand.

• D15 students have demonstrated improvement in meeting or exceeding state standards of learning as assessed through the Illinois Standards Achievement Test, given in grades three, five, and eight for reading and math and in grades four and seven for science. The district equaled or outperformed its comparison district at all levels and in all subjects from 1998-99 through 2001-02 (comparative data for 2002-03 are not yet available). In addition, in 2002-03, performance in third grade math exceeded the 90 percent target and approached the state’s top 3 percent benchmark. Grade five math, grade seven science, and grade three reading neared the 90 percent target.

• Employee-focused results have shown strong performance, supporting the district’s goal of High-Performing Staff. The district has increased the number of its teachers who have achieved National Board Certification from two in 1994-95 to 48 in 2002-03, the second-highest number in the state. In addition, highly qualified teachers, as defined in the Illinois criteria for meeting the federal “No Child Left Behind” legislation, teach 100 percent of the district’s classes.

• The district has achieved favorable levels on a variety of employee satisfaction indicators. Turnover rate in the district for certified staff was 11.7 percent for 2002-03, compared to a national average of 20 percent, and attrition for first-year teachers decreased significantly, from 19.5 percent in 1996-97 to 6.3 percent in 2002-03, well below the 20 percent level of the comparative local school district.

• As a result of D15’s safety efforts, 97 percent of teachers rate their work environment as safe and secure, and parents’ satisfaction level with school safety and security was at the 93 percent level in 2002-03. In addition, the percentage of staff who had accidents decreased from 9.7 percent in 1999-2000 to 3.6 percent in 2002-03 (well below the 7.6 percent figure for the comparative local school district), and the number of workers’ compensation claims for the same period decreased from 170 to 73 (compared to 168 for the comparative local school district).

• Respect for all students is a key requirement for many district schools. Over the past three years, the level of student respect in the schools focusing on this requirement increased from 15 to 43 percent; the district average increased 20 percent. Segmentation of data by students’ grade level and gender revealed that no significant differences existed in satisfaction levels.

• Results for student enthusiasm for learning (one of D15’s student performance targets) indicate significant progress. For example, among eighth-grade students, enthusiasm for reading increased from about 42 percent in 2001-02 to about 82 percent in 2002-03; enthusiasm for math increased from about 50 percent to about 80 percent; and enthusiasm for science increased from about 42 percent to about 82 percent.

• Science instruction is enhanced by the use of a “space shuttle” -- a converted school bus; mission control simulations; a Discovery Learning Center for earth science and geology; and involvement in actual space shuttle missions. Since 1996, junior high students with learning disabilities have participated in a week-long competition at the NASA Space Camp in Huntsville, Ala., against non-disabled and gifted students from throughout the nation. During these seven years, the D15 students have finished first in at least one of four competition areas.

Processes

• D15 has developed innovative means of assessing performance important to key stakeholders where traditional educational measures are not sufficient. For example, market performance is determined by calculating the dollar cost per percentage point of performance on state learning standards tests. This allows a value creation comparison with other districts in the state. At $111.93, D15 outperformed three comparison districts which ranged from $118.57 to $122.36. In addition, D15 maintained a per pupil expenditure rate that is at or above the level of both comparison districts and the state average from 1995-96 to 2001-02. Over the same period, no tax referendum has been sought to increase this primary source of funding.

• The district uses internal and external audits to ensure its fiscal accountability. Documents submitted for external review (annual budget and annual financial reports) have received the highest rating (excellent), and the district has received several awards for financial practices. Guidelines for D15’s governance system are written into the Board of Education (BOE) Policy Manual and are reviewed, revised, and updated by the district’s Policy Committee on a quarterly basis. The BOE holds the superintendent responsible for the administration and management of D15 schools in accordance with BOE policies and directives, and the leadership team annually evaluates the performance of the superintendent and his cabinet.

• Strategy Development for D15 is led by the District Advisory Committee for Educational Excellence. This group, broadly configured from all key stakeholder segments and chaired by a community member, uses a nine-phase Strategic Planning Process to translate stakeholder expectations, environmental scanning information, and organizational performance requirements into Key Goals and Performance Expectations. The explicit involvement of these key groups serves to both create and balance value for students and stakeholders.

• The Strategic Vision 2005 is the starting point for the district to convert strategy into action plans. From this guiding document containing Mission, Core Values, Key Goals, and Student Performance Targets, a One-Page Plan Scorecard is developed for each department. Objectives from these scorecards are communicated to school leaders, who use this information to align their own plans using a Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) cycle. Strategy is further cascaded through the organization via a series of aligned PDSAs for teams and classrooms.

• To manage its operation by fact, D15 has constructed a system of leading and lagging success measures aligned to the district’s six key goals. Data are analyzed and results are then distributed to faculty and staff to make informed decisions and develop innovations in education and support services.

• Processes that support the district’s learning-centered processes, including transportation, custodial, central stores, technology infrastructure, and maintenance, are aligned to help achieve student performance targets. Owners of these processes collect student and stakeholder requirement data through both formal and informal means, and use these data to design, implement, and evaluate processes that will both improve organizational efficiency and contribute to student learning results. This focus on organizational synergy moves the district toward its mission of a connected learning community.

Leadership/Social Responsibility

• D15 supports the community in a variety of ways. It is one of the largest contributors to the local United Way, contributions increased by more than 50 percent from 1998-99 to 2002-03; it established the Al Hoover/PTA Health fund, which partners with local health providers to serve D15 students who otherwise would be unable to obtain needed medical care; and its administrators contribute more than1,500 volunteer hours on 48 local committees. In addition, D15 has established numerous community service opportunities for its students, such as providing labor to repair homeless shelters, donating clothing and books to needy families, making quilts for children in hospitals, and supporting food drives.

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Created: 11/25/03
Updated: September 17, 2004
Contact: inquiries@nist.gov