The Challenge
For the Jenks Public School District, 2005 was a momentous year. After preparing a lengthy application and enduring a rigorous evaluation by a team of examiners, the district learned that it had received the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. The accolade is the highest national honor awarded by the President of the United States recognizing organizations for their excellence in quality and performance. Only three other school districts have won the award since it was established in 1987. Although receiving the Baldrige award is a testament to Jenks Public School District's effective infrastructure, it also required a new level of commitment to quality on the part of the district.

"When a school district or any other institution is identified as being high-quality or top-flight, all staff members feel a sense of responsibility for not only retaining the quality that allowed the institution to receive that award in the first place, but to continuously improve at the same time," explained Dr. Kirby Lehman, superintendent of Jenks Public Schools. "When an institution has a high level of success, oftentimes it will either struggle in that continuous improvement process or it will, in some cases, rest on its laurels. Keeping us motivated as a district toward a vision and toward our goals, preventing us from resting on our laurels, is our challenge. We all feel that challenge."

Prior to receiving the Baldrige Award, Jenks Public Schools employed a specially designed framework, called total quality education, to insure the success of the district. Administrators and educators currently maintain this framework to support their strategy for continuous improvement. Additionally, the district reinforces its goal of total quality education with scrupulous practices to maximize its assets despite low funding, including a strong professional development center for staff and supplemental programs for students.

About the District
The Jenks Public School District is the eleventh-largest school district in Oklahoma with 9,700 students from the city of Jenks as well as southern and northern regions of Tulsa. Founded in 1907, it is a suburban school district composed of nine schools that are divided among five large campuses. The schools are arranged by a unique grade structure: three elementary schools for pre-K–4; two intermediate schools for grades 5–6; one middle school for grades 7–8; a Freshman Academy for the ninth grade; one high school for grades 10–12; and an Alternative Center that offers an educational program for at-risk high school–level students. The district makes use of parent volunteers and offers a number of programs for students, such as a Chinese exchange program, and specialized tutoring in math and language arts. It has 32 percent minority population, and 25 percent of students are at or below the federal poverty line.

Step One: Create a Framework for Success
Jenks Public Schools began seeking ways for continuous improvement more than a decade ago when it adopted the concept of total quality education. The philosophy was developed from the theories of Dr. W. Edwards Deming, and emphasizes four main principles: strong leadership; customer focus—providing excellent educational services and developing meaningful relationships with the school community; systems and process focus—establishing effective infrastructures; and, of course, continuous improvement. Within the total quality education structure, quality training for staff, an emphasis on teamwork, and data-driven decisions make up the foundation for effectively reaching goals.

In accordance with the total quality framework, administrators implemented a variety of processes to insure the district is continually making progress towards its goals. For instance, "We have a strategic planning process that we use annually with our school board," explained Lehman. "It's a very expeditious process involving approximately fifteen district leaders, including our entire school board. It permits and promotes the positive participation of all individuals who attend and take part in a strategic planning session and it ultimately leads to the next biennial, and now triennial, goals that we share with our students, staff members, and local community. Over the years, we have refined that strategic planning process and really developed a much narrower focus than we had twelve years ago when we first introduced the concept of total quality education."

Overall, the district's philosophy has become a guiding force for everyone at Jenks Public Schools. "Each director and site principal keeps that concept of quality in mind as he or she makes decisions as part of the daily routine in the school district," said Lehman. "We believe that we have developed a quality culture where people ask questions like, 'Is this helping us strive to reach our goals?' as they make decisions in the district."

Step Two: Maximize Resources
Lehman cites low funding as one of Jenks Public School District's primary management challenges. "Oklahoma is ranked forty-seventh or forty-eighth in per-pupil education funding compared to states across the nation, meaning it's near the bottom," he explained. "Within the state of Oklahoma, there are 539 school districts; typically Jenks is provided with operational funding that ranks us about 505th. Considering how Oklahoma is ranked in the nation and how Jenks is ranked in Oklahoma, I tell our patrons and others who will listen that this scenario places the Jenks School District right next to Sri Lanka and Zanzibar in education funding. We are truly a third world–funded school district with world-class results."

To overcome its financial limitations and to draw on its own philosophies for success, the district instituted specific practices to make the most of its assets by exploiting its large campus configuration and enlisting parents as volunteers.

Because three out of the five Jenks' campuses house more than one school, resources are easily shared among them. "We believe large campuses save the district considerable money," explained Lehman. "With such things as food delivery and mail delivery, we have fewer stops for service providers to make. Also, we have fewer campuses for our buses to enter and exit on a daily basis. There are economies in our warehouse processes, delivery processes, and transportation department. Additionally, our maintenance department has fewer sites to visit to provide repair services."

Furthermore, large campuses benefit educators by increasing their pool of educational resources as well as focusing the impact of administrators. "Large sites and several teachers across each grade or in each department share materials, instructional strategies, professional development opportunities, and so forth," explained Lehman. "Also, we don't have administration for each of our several smaller sites. Instead we have administrative people—principals, assistant principals, and administrative assistants—all concentrated at one larger site. This economizes by providing the opportunity to interact with fewer people when we need to educate individuals regarding any change in district policies, practices, or procedures. Additionally, with as few as nine site principals—the head principals on each of our sites—frankly, it's easier to find top-flight individuals to run a school."

Finally, the Jenks Public School District has a considerable number of parents who provide assistance, alleviating some of the pressure for funds and also helping by raising money for the district. "We have a very active and supportive parent population," said Lehman. "They routinely help our school districts in our quest to get bond elections passed, which provides funds for capital purchases such as buildings, property, equipment, transportation vehicles, and the like. With tremendous support from our local population, we are able to equip our facilities quite well."

Step Three: Parents Pitch In
In addition to drumming up bond money, parent volunteers provide other important services for the Jenks schools. They fulfill organizational duties and tutor students, saving the district a substantial amount of money by performing activities that would otherwise require paid staff. "Oftentimes they aid teachers by duplicating materials, organizing laboratories, etc.," explained Lehman. "Occasionally they work under the direction of the site principal, greeting people who enter the building, and helping them complete the lobby guard process on the sites, and so forth. In some cases they go into classrooms and work in quasi-tutorial situations. Sometimes they work individually with students outside the classroom as well."

The district makes a special effort to recruit fathers as volunteers, encouraging their active participation in their children's education. For instance, the East and West Elementary Schools each have a special program to encourage fathers, stepfathers, grandfathers, uncles, and guardians to get involved. "The fathers go into the schools and read to students individually or as a class; they help students with mathematics and other laboratory-based activities," said Lehman. "The key is getting fathers to be visible in academic activities. Unfortunately, my perception as a long-term superintendent and father is that fathers are often regarded as the athletic coaches and moms are seen as the academic supporters. While those roles are fine, occasionally a reversal of the roles will help young people understand that they can and should be multi-dimensional."

Over the years, the number of parents dedicating their time to the district has steadily increased. "Each year, we record about 40,000 hours of service to our school district by our site and classroom volunteers," said Lehman. He believes that parents' presence in schools has added value for students. "If a child sees his or her parent having a high enough level of interest to show up at school and support the teachers, then that child will almost naturally have a higher level of interest and a more positive attitude about school," he said. "And those parents are also role-modeling for children other than their own."

Step Four: Exceptional Professional Development
Jenks Publics Schools goes to great lengths to find exceptional staff to maximize the district's potential. "We are a school district that is utterly dependent on recruiting and maintaining high-quality staff, and we try to squeeze every penny out of the few available dollars to make certain our staff members are of the best quality," said Lehman. "A great part of that is done through the screening and selection process. Once staff members are on board, that high quality is continued by providing exceptional professional development opportunities."

The district offers a dedicated program for professional development, which aligns with its total quality framework for continuous improvement. The professional development department's leadership committee identifies courses and activities to help the district reach its goal for strong, well-trained leaders. For example, the department provides training in specific disciplines for new teachers, instruction in emergency response procedures, and holds various orientation programs. It also aids in retaining staff members. "Without a doubt providing high-caliber professional development opportunities helps retain a top-flight staff," said Lehman.

Step Five: Supplementary Programs for Students
The depth of enrichment and tutoring programs offered to students exemplifies Jenks Public School District's commitment to quality education despite financial challenges. These programs range from international exchange programs to specialized tutoring laboratories.

Five years ago, the district developed an exchange program with Chengdu #7 High School in Chengdu, China. As part of the annual program, approximately a dozen Jenks High School students spend three weeks in China experiencing Chinese culture firsthand. Students from the Chengdu high school then visit Jenks for three weeks as part of their own international learning experience. Teachers and principals also participate in an exchange program with Chengdu to learn from their Chinese counterparts, and just recently, Jenks Middle School instituted its own Chinese exchanges with Shenyang Experimental Middle School in Shenyang, China.

"As a result of the economic and cultural changes in China, we believe the country is one of the future economic challenges for the United States," explained Lehman. "With that in mind, we can learn a lot from the Chinese people and their education system. That is at the forefront of our thinking for this Chinese exchange program." To further achieve these goals, Chinese as a foreign language has been offered at the high school level for more than a decade, and recently has been made available for middle school and intermediate school students. In fact, this past year, Jenks Public Schools became one of the first school districts in the United States to offer a course in Advanced Placement Chinese for high school students.

The district also hosts special programs for middle and high school students struggling in mathematics and language arts. One program called Saturday Algebra School provides an opportunity for students having difficulty with pre-algebra and algebra to revisit their course and possibly replace a less than satisfactory grade. Students spend seven Saturdays attending four-and-a-half-hour sessions relearning material from the previous quarter's math class. The program reinforces their skills and they gain the confidence needed to proceed in other math courses. "It has been extremely well received, and the success rate of our students has been phenomenal. I am absolutely delighted with the results of that program," said Lehman.

Math laboratory is offered to middle and high school students to help them overcome challenges with mathematics. While concurrently enrolled in their regular math classes, students receive an additional hour of math instruction per day. "The first two years of math laboratories has seen an improvement in mathematics achievement for those students who were struggling," said Lehman.

In the upcoming school year, Jenks High School will institute a similar program to support students in reading and composition. Students who earn Ds or Fs in ninth grade language arts and had previously performed poorly in eighth grade reading will participate in a daily reading and composition laboratory. "Those students will have two language arts experiences in the tenth grade because they clearly need some level of remediation in the areas of reading and writing," explained Lehman.

Step Six: Continually Identify Opportunities for Improvement
As part of the Baldrige nominee evaluation, examiners created a detailed assessment of Jenks Public Schools' policies and procedures. The process was extremely helpful for the district, uncovering issues to address, and more importantly, complementing its mission to continuously improve.

"I would recommend any school district or business institution go through the Baldrige application process," said Lehman. "It is a great process of introspection for any institution, and as you introspect, you will find areas for improvement. It is critical for any school or other institution to identify opportunities for improvement to exemplify the continuous improvement philosophy."

The evaluation recommended several ways for the district to be more effective. First, it revealed that although the school board had a system to evaluate the superintendent, certified staff, and support staff, it did not have a process in place to evaluate itself.

"The Baldrige application identified that particular opportunity for improvement," said Lehman. "We immediately developed a policy that requires the board to conduct a self-evaluation process annually. They began conducting those evaluations under the auspices of the Oklahoma State School Boards Association in 2005, and we have continued those self-evaluations since that year. They have caused board members to look at their own actions, behaviors, policies, and the impact they have on student learning, and that has resulted in some very positive changes in our school district."

Another issue that arose was the absence of a clearly defined ethics policy for the district. "I was thunderstruck because our district did not have a specific ethics policy," said Lehman. "Clearly, I felt that we were an ethical institution and practiced ethical philosophies across the district. But we did not have a policy in place, and I was very concerned about that. Since then, we have conducted ethical scenarios with our administrators, and they then conduct such scenarios with their staff members so that all people in the district know and understand ethical practices and behavior across the institution."

Conclusion
Two years after receiving the Baldrige award, the Jenks Public School District continues its commitment to its goals. Oklahoma's 2006 state report card shows that the district's students scored higher on assessment tests on average in all subject areas and in all levels tested (grades 3–12). It also boasts high ACT scores, a large number of Merit Scholars yearly, 170 state athletic championships, and a strong fine arts program. Currently, Jenks schools are in the top 1 percent of schools in Oklahoma.

"We have a very, very strong student body, faculty, and parent and patrons support group, and those supportive and highly trained people, more than anything else, is what makes Jenks tick. It is the support mechanism from all of those groups that has permitted and promoted our students' high level of success," said Lehman.

Lehman believes the district's motto reflects how staff members, students, and parents have operated through the years, and how they continue to do so within the total quality education framework. "Our motto is 'A tradition of excellence with a vision for tomorrow,'" he explained. "The 'tradition of excellence' portion of the motto allows us to brag, and rightfully so, about past student and staff successes. The 'vision for tomorrow' is what keeps our own feet to the fire in making appropriate, data-based, and quality-laden decisions that will have a positive impact on student achievement in the future."