Several of New Mexico's business and education leaders were assembled by Governor Bruce King in 1991 to help improve the quality of education in New Mexico. Both the education and business communities agreed that our state would benefit from such a cooperative effort, resulting in the formation of the Governor's Business Executives for Education (GBEE). Their vision is to have a Baldrige-based state educational system that produces successful productive students and highly satisfied stakeholders.
In 1992, the GBEEs established the Strengthening Quality in Schools (SQS) initiative to carry out their vision. The mission of SQS is to accelerate improvement of student achievement and system performance in NM schools by promoting the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Education Criteria for Performance Excellence and the Continuous Improvement concepts as the basis of an integrated education system and to lead selected statewide and local initiatives to provide challenging, engaging, and relevant learning opportunities.
SQS has provided training and coaching to small leadership teams from NM districts, schools, and the Public Education Department. This successful approach was expanded to Regional Quality Centers and SQS Baldrige Pilot Districts and Pilot Demonstration Schools with the purpose of fully deploying a systems approach throughout the district and the schools in the district.
SQS places a strong emphasis on building internal capacity and self-sufficiency within the district and schools by providing on-site training and coaching on a systems approach to continuous improvement at the district, school, department, goal team, and classroom levels.
Demand for SQS participation continues to grow, especially with the strong support of the Governor, Lt. Governor, the Secretary of Education, and other leaders in New Mexico. SQS is meeting that demand by offering public workshops that are open to anyone who wants to attend, even if they are not an SQS member, district or school.
SQS has seen dramatic improvement in many schools that implemented continuous improvement concepts, the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) Cycle, and the Baldrige Education Criteria with fidelity and when leadership has modeled and supported this approach throughout all systems in their school or district.