The Alamo Colleges District (ACD) has become the first higher education institution to receive the prestigious Baldrige Award twice.
The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) on Thursday announced that five organizations this year are getting the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation’s only presidential award for performance excellence. ACD is the sole educational organization and one of two two-time recipients of the newly redesigned national quality award. The Texas college district, which includes five colleges in the San Antonio area, previously received the award in 2018 in the education category.
Alamo Colleges “provides affordable or tuition-free education to eligible students in an effort to help end poverty, enhance economic and social mobility, and meet workforce demands,” NIST said in its announcement.
ACD Chancellor Mike Flores said on Thursday that the district is using the Baldrige framework to instill and achieve quality standards and transform the lives of students through efforts such as its tuition-free AlamoPROMISE program, the district’s Transfer Advising Guides initiative, and partnerships with community organizations like San Antonio Food Bank.
“This is a testament to the dedication and vision of our board, along with the efforts of our exceptional faculty and staff who have worked for years to achieve this milestone,” he said on receiving the award. “We are grateful for this honor as we strive to achieve our moonshot. Our win is our community’s win.”
The district has received numerous awards and honors over the past eight years, including the 2021 and 2022 Award for Excellence in Student Success from the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC). In 2023, Flores received the Baldrige Foundation Award for Leadership.
AACC President and CEO Walter Bumphus gave kudos to Alamo Colleges for its latest high honor.
“Alamo is a proven leader in the community college sector and continues to set the standard for implementing programs and services that support student success,” Bumphus said. “This recognition honors their commitment to the ceaseless advancement of students by fostering a culture of inclusive governance and a laser-focus on continuous improvement across the organization. This is an amazing achievement and very well-deserved.”
Richland College, now known as Dallas College Richland Campus (Texas), was the first community college to receive a Baldrige in 2005. Maryland’s Howard Community College received the award in 2019.
NIST redesigned the Baldrige Award this year to focus on organizational resilience.
“The new criteria are intended to help organizations adapt, innovate and thrive in a dynamic environment where change and disruption are constant,” the agency said in a release. “To win the award, in addition to demonstrating organizational resilience, recipients also must show long-term success through favorable performance levels and trends, comparisons to competitors and appropriate benchmarks, and relevant metrics.”
