This new approach, comprehensive school reform, takes an integrated view of the reform process. It is based on the concept that the way to successfully improve school performance is to simultaneously change all elements of a school's operating environment so as to bring each element into alignment with a central, guiding vision.

The success of comprehensive school reform depends on careful planning of school and district resource commitments. Unlike traditional reform efforts, comprehensive reform is not easily funded through a small increase in a school's operating budget.

We’ve made a transformation from a teaching system to a learning system by “igniting a passion for learning.” Deming said all children come to school with this passion for learning and our job as educators is to increase the successes and decrease the failures students experience so they retain their natural passion.

The Baldrige is a set of criteria that assess a combination of three interrelated aspects common to all systems. It is first of all a measure of the capacity of various system components and connections. The Baldrige Criteria force us to assess the system components and determine how well they are working together to achieve the organization's goals. Baldrige is also a process for determining which components and which connections add value and which do not add value. Finally, Baldrige is a blueprint for guiding the development of a well-connected system capable of high performance.

The Baldrige Criteria, when fully implemented, result in a well-aligned, well-coordinated and integrated system of practices capable of meeting and exceeding the needs, expectations, and requirements of its stakeholders. 

Maryland