Leadership Practices of Alamo Colleges District

Five-Part Leadership Blog Series

In this five-part blog series on the 2018 Baldrige Award recipients’ leadership presentations at the 31st Annual Quest for Excellence® Conference (April 7–10, 2019), senior leaders of the five newest national role models share best practices and stories of how they achieved excellence.

Leadership “The Alamo Way”

Speaking on leadership at the Baldrige Program’s 31st Annual Quest for Excellence Conference this year, Alamo Colleges District (ACD) Chancellor Mike Flores said he thinks of parents and students among those he considers “leaders.” He shared that his own parents both grew up in migrant farmer households in Texas and saw education as a key to economic and social mobility for themselves and then for their children.
 

Among the lessons of leadership that his father imparted to him—particularly through his own 30-plus-year career as an educator—is “service over self,” said Flores. In becoming the first Hispanic chancellor of Alamo Colleges District, Flores realized one of his father’s dreams: that his son would become the leader of the organization in which he worked. (His father both taught and was a dean for one of ACD’s colleges.)

Describing leadership as a cycle, Flores stated, “Leadership is about establishing goals, it’s about building trust, it’s about working toward a cause, and most importantly, it’s about preparing a new generation.” 

Flores explained that ACD “lives the leadership cycle” through its mission, vision, and values. “We seek to empower each and every one of our distinct communities,” he said, paraphrasing his institution’s stated mission of “empowering our diverse communities for success.” The organization’s vision of being the best in the nation for student success and performance excellence is supported by its cultural values of putting students first, having a can-do spirit and respect for all, being data-informed and community-engaged, and promoting collaboration.

Putting students first, practicing principle-centered leadership, and achieving performance excellence are ACD’s three overarching priorities, defined as The Alamo Way. As part of this philosophy of education, ACD embraces the mantra “we have a leader in every seat” in regard to students, while also providing a leader in every classroom and office through high-performing faculty and staff members, according to Flores.

Serving a Large, Poor Population

Based in San Antonio with a service area that spans eight counties, ACD is the largest provider in south Texas of higher education and one of the largest community college systems within the state. It encompasses five community colleges: Northeast Lakeview College, Northwest Vista College, Palo Alto College, St Philip’s College, and San Antonio College. Together, the colleges enroll more than 100,000 students. More than 70 percent have low incomes.

After stressing the higher salaries for graduates with advanced degrees, Flores said, “We want to ensure that every student has that opportunity.” To that end, since 2010, ACD has substantially increased the number and amount of the scholarships it awards to make education more affordable for its students. In addition, the number of two-year degrees and workforce training certificates awarded by ACD colleges has doubled between 2013 to 2017 to 12,750, which is three times the state norm.

Progress toward Excellence

Flores highlighted that four of ACD’s five colleges are currently ranked among the top 10 percent in the nation, as measured by the Aspen Institute’s 2019 Aspen Prize for community college excellence. Most recently, Palo Alto College also received a 2019 Rising Star Award from the Aspen Institute, which places Palo Alto College among the top 10 community colleges in the nation—the top 1 percent, noted Flores.Flores also presented key milestones of his organization’s Baldrige-based journey of excellence since 2007. For example, he pointed out that Northwest Vista College led the district in earning recognition for its performance by earning a Texas Award for Performance Excellence (TAPE) of the Quality Texas Foundation more than a decade ago. Last year, ACD’s St. Philip’s College received the TAPE.

Preparing a New Generation of Leaders

To demonstrate the leadership cycle, Flores shared how ACD students who have benefited from his institution’s education services, in turn, benefit their families and communities. For example, he described the successful path of Dorathy Tarpeh, a former student at St. Philip’s College who transferred to pursue the next level of her education to become a nurse. “St. Philip’s College and the Alamo Colleges District provided her with opportunity,” Flores said. “What she hopes to do is to provide that opportunity to her family and future generations.”

View more processes and results of Alamo Colleges District.

Five-Part Leadership Blog Series: Upcoming Blogs

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Memorial Hospital and Health Care Center (Health Care)

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