Westfield Washington Schools recently received a site visit from The Partnership for Excellence, a regional alliance with the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. WWS is the first school in the state of Indiana to receive a site visit.
“It is very gratifying to receive the site visit, but our journey to performance excellence is one that never ends,” said Mark Keen, Superintendent of Westfield Washington Schools. “We use the Baldrige criteria for continuous improvement as an organization impacting our students’ achievement preparing them to compete in a global marketplace.”
The Partnership for Excellence examiner team reviewed the district’s application and did a thorough evaluation of its processes. The team was comprised of individuals from various businesses and industries that are working on the same types of goals within their organizations.
“The examiner team will provide us with an objective review,” said Cindy Keever, Executive Director of Quality Performance. “We look forward to receiving the feedback report and learning about the areas where we do well and those where we can improve.”
Six years ago, the district began its quality journey which brought many improvements, including moving students in grade two through eight to outperforming 90 percent of similar students across the nation in meeting individual growth in 21 grade level, content areas. WWS began with one of those categories reaching that level of performance and now meet that benchmark in 13.
The district also made a commitment that our graduation rate will continually exceed 90 percent and has been expanded into graduation goals that over half of our graduates will leave with an Honors diploma and college credit earned in one or more classes.
The district will receive the feedback report by the end of June. “Internally, our quality improvement journey is measured by meeting our goals,” said Keever. “To have an independent team examine our processes and ultimately be recognized at the regional and national levels are part of the process.”
The regional level has four levels of recognition: platinum, gold, silver, and bronze. Organizations must receive recognition at the regional level before applying at the national level.
In February, WWS released the new Stakeholder Review highlighting the district’s progress towards the goals set in the 2011-2016 Strategic Plan. The strategic plan was approved by the Board of School Trustees in August.
The previous five year strategic plan closed out at the end of the 2010-2011 school year. At the same time, the Stakeholder Review process replaced the district scorecard. Both strategic plans, along with the Stakeholder Review and Scorecards, can be viewed on the district’s website at www.wws.k12.in.us