Chapter Three: Quality Improvement Efforts

In 1997, Southeast Arkansas College became the first educational institution in the state to apply for and to receive the Arkansas Quality Award. The Arkansas Quality Award (AQA) developed as a catalyst for a continuous quality improvement paradigm was modeled after the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award program. Using seven criteria, an organization evaluates its procedures, their implementation, and the results. The College has received three Arkansas Quality Awards, the 1997 Quality Interest Award, and the 1998 and 1999 Quality Commitment Awards. The AQA program identified four award levels: Quality Interest, Quality Commitment, Quality Achievement (optional on-site evaluation), and the Governor's Award (required on-site evaluation). Southeast Arkansas College recognizes the value of third-party comment from individuals knowledgeable in the principles of continuous improvement efforts and will continue its participation in this program. 

The cyclical nature, both in form and in function, of continuous quality improvement aligns with the College's plan for Assessment of Student Academic Achievement and Institutional Effectiveness. The AQA program focuses the participating institution on effectively managing its processes and resources, obtaining timely feedback on those processes, and utilizing this feedback to further deploy quality initiatives. This procedure allows the College to make improvements that advance its Mission based on quantified and qualified measures. Taking advantage of networking with "best in class" institutions and learning from their practices, the College will make improvements in team building, communication, and measuring for process improvement. The cyclical nature of this assessment process will drive continuous improvement. 

The complete Arkansas Quality Award Feedback Report, available for review in the Resource Room, contains a categorical list of evaluator comments in reference to the College's strengths and areas for improvement. The categories are Leadership, Strategic Planning, Customer and Market Focus, Information Analysis, Human Resource Development and Management, Process Management, and Business Results. In summary, the strengths and areas for improvement identified by this third-party evaluation were: 

Category 1: Leadership 

Strengths in this area are: 

1. The network system that has been established for communicating information to and from employees, because this provides for consistency in goals, team building, sharing of knowledge and employee empowerment. 
2. The review process in which senior leaders monitor the progress of departmental goal attainment. 
3. The organization's proactive approach to serving the community and playing an active role in community development. 

Areas for Improvement are: 

1. There appears to be no segregating of performance review findings for each primary customer type and addressing each customer as a separate entity while incorporating all of them into the key strategic objectives. 

Category 2: Strategic Planning 

Strengths in this area are: 

1. A strong foundation for the strategic planning process and the method of S.W.O.T (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis which is used. 
2. The opportunity which allows goals and objectives to be developed on a departmental level. 

Areas for Improvement are: 

1. There appears to be no separating and identifying short- and long-term action plans as well as a target date for completion of these plans. 
2. There appears to be no implementation of indicators to measure progress of action plans, which will ultimately affect the overall success of accomplishing organizational goals. 

Category 3: Customer and Market Focus 

Strengths in this area are: 

1. The use of listening posts. 
2. Identifying and targeting specific customers through the Workforce Development Center and high schools. 
3. The existence of procedures for registering complaints and completing customer surveys. 

Areas for Improvement are: 

1. There appears to be a lack of information on customers of competitors (also in Category 7,7.1) to possibly recruit more customers. 
2. There does not appear to be an efficient system for managing complaints and a means to analyze aggregate information. 
3. There are no separate surveys for each customer type, which address their individual specific needs. 

Category 4: Information Analysis 

Strengths in this area are: 

1. Alignment of indicators with the organization's goals. 
2. The beginning of a measurement system for organizational performance. 

Areas for Improvement are: 

1. There appears to be no specific methods for measuring the performance indicators. 
2. There appears to be no specific action plans and improvement implementation methods used by senior leaders. 

Category 5: Human Resource Development and Management 

Strengths in this area are: 

1. The use of faculty and staff evaluations. 
2. The time set-aside for in-service training of employees. 
3. The use of employee satisfaction surveys. 

Areas for Improvement are: 

1. The absence of mechanisms used to motivate employees in developing career objectives. 
2. There appears to be no system to evaluate training and education for possible improvements in future training and education design. 
3. There appears to be no system of processing employee satisfaction survey results to develop action plans to enhance the overall work environment. 

Category 6: Process Management 

Strengths in this area are: 

1. Use of student surveys to measure the effectiveness of a process or method. 
2. The existence of key support services. 
3. A foundation for the product and service design process. 

Areas for Improvement are: 

1. There appears to be no consideration of stakeholders and resources in the product and services design process. 
2. There appears to be no supplier and partner communication to ensure performance requirements are being met. 

Category 7: Business Results 

Strengths in this area are: 

1. The use of student satisfaction surveys. 
2. The comparative data collected for various measurements. 

Areas for Improvement are: 

1. There is a lack of trend information over a longer time period. 
2. There appears to be no specific/detailed surveys tailored to each primary customer type. 
3. There appears to be no survey comparing results to indicators for goals and/or key strategic objectives. 
4. There appears to be no studies, which benchmark competitors on specific issues through customer surveys, local or national studies, or collaborative systems for sharing information between institutions. 

Academic Quality Improvement Project 

Southeast Arkansas College elected to become a member of the Academic Quality Improvement Project of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Institutions of Higher Education in January of 2000. The College has appointed a lead examiner, knowledgeable of continuous quality improvement principles and skilled in leading such a self-study, to guide the AQIP initiative. The Team Leader is in the process of building the College's cross-functional team to participate with the AQIP Collaborative Quality Colloquia. 

The College's interaction with institutions within the AQIP Colloquia will provide valuable insight into these institutions' perspectives, approaches, and experiences adaptable to Southeast Arkansas College's unique environment. The full involvement of the faculty and staff will create a sense of shared ownership in the process and for the advancements achieved. The College believes involvement in the Colloquia will allow fellow member institutions to gain from its experience in implementing quality initiatives.