CQIN Benchmarking

CQIN engaged in a partnership with the American Productivity and Quality Center (creators of the original Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for the U.S. Government) in Houston, TX in 2000 to learn their methodology for benchmarking. That partnership resulted in a national study that CQIN funded to look at Best Practices in Developmental Education. The results of that project were published by the National Center for Developmental Education ( http://www.ncde.appstate.edu/ ) What Works-Research Based Best Practices in Developmental Education. This new project with IDEO will go beyond the looking for best practices towards developing significant innovations in student success systems that can be replicated across higher education, especially in community colleges. We will ask participating CQIN colleges to focus their innovations on at least one of the following areas:

Innovative instructional models;
Robust curriculum development;
Student support systems that profile learner needs and design success pathways and tracking systems for each cohort;
Innovative partnerships with other educational sectors to eliminate waste and redundancy in the learning enterprise;
Process vs. learner outcomes correlation models;
Innovative access strategies; and
Faculty development focused on continuous improvement of instructional processes tied to learning outcomes.

Year One – participating colleges are trained on the IDEO methodology and institutions research and identify their individual innovation project;
Year Two – IDEO provides onsite facilitation at each college to develop breakthrough innovations for the project. The college designs the new process and begins implementation. Sharing sessions between the participating colleges occur at appropriate intervals.
Year Three – Participating colleges begin to document results and come together for sharing sessions and “lessons learned.” In addition, these participating colleges assist CQIN in developing a sustainable “innovations laboratory” process, infrastructure, and budget.

Budget for the IDEO/CQIN project has been targeted at $2.5 million for the three years. At this point, the Kellogg Foundation has committed to be involved with a likely level of funding between $300-$400 thousand dollars. Our contact with Kellogg is Mr. Ted Chen, Program Officer, Youth and Education. Initial budget breakdown for the project is as follows:

Year One – Organization

Defining the scope of work, establishing the relationship between IDEO and CQIN, IDEO and member colleges, and colleges to colleges. Training on the IDEO methodology. Analysis of the current state of college process and functions is conducted; innovation projects identified by participating CQIN colleges and anticipated outcomes agreed to. Criteria for success of the entire project are developed and indicators and a tracking process are identified.

Year Two – Implementation

Individual member colleges work with IDEO facilitators onsite to use their methodology for developing innovations in college learning systems, learner support systems, access and curriculum. Sharing sessions between CQIN colleges are scheduled. Track project success indicators and evaluate.

Year Three – Collaboration

Share project implementation within CQIN and begin to develop documentation that can be shared across higher education. Develop a sustainable CQIN “Innovations Laboratory” process, infrastructure and budget. Track project success indicators and evaluate.

We are seeking funding from the Lumina Foundation for $400,000 over three years for the collaborative processes between CQIN institutions, and higher education in general, in the sharing of their innovations in student learning, student success and innovative access strategies. We are also earmarking funds from this source to develop a sustainable CQIN Innovations Laboratory for ongoing research and development of innovative practices in community college core functions.

Summary of Proposed 3-year IDEO/CQIN Project

Year One – Organization

Year Two – Implementation

Year Three – Collaboration