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Christel Henke
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For Immediate Release
ASQ Seeks Outstanding Education Teams
Award Program to Spotlight First-Class Quality Education Efforts
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, June 10, 2008 — When it comes to success in education, teamwork is essential. Teachers, administrators, students and parents working effectively together provide our children with the best opportunity to achieve. If you are part of a successful school team, the American Society for Quality (ASQ) invites you to participate in its 2nd Annual Education Team Excellence Award, which will showcase the nation’s most outstanding improvement efforts at the 16th Annual National Quality Education Conference (NQEC) in Reno, Nev., November 16–18, 2008.
Faculty, students, staff and administrators from K-12 school districts, higher education institutions and trade schools from across the country are invited to showcase team initiatives that demonstrate effective instruction, professional development and quality improvement initiatives. Projects must have been completed in the last two years and achieved measurable results by August 2008. The event is modeled after ASQ’s International Team Excellence Award – the only international team-recognition process of its kind in the United States.
The Education Team Excellence Award will provide educators with the opportunity to benchmark their team’s efforts against other schools’ best practices, and capture national and international recognition for the winning schools’ team-based quality improvement efforts. Each finalist team will present its project live during the NQEC and all entrants will be recognized for their participation. The highest scoring teams will receive Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards. Scoring will be conducted by a team of judges from across the country.
“We all felt we had accomplished extraordinary ACT scores for a public school due to our commitment to the project and wanted to share our success with other educators,” said Kirti Mehrota, Ph.D., sophomore principal, Lafayette High School, Wildwood, Mo., which won the Silver Education Team Excellence Award in 2007. “The most beneficial part of the process was the opportunity to reflect in depth on our work and implementation process. It was a great experience to present at a national conference and become a resource for educators and learn from other presenters.”
Criteria and guidelines for the award are available online at Education Team Excellence. Intent-to-submit forms are due from teams by July 18, 2008, and entry fees and materials are due from teams by August 1, 2008. For more information on how to participate e-mail gbalagopal@asq.org or call ASQ at 800-248-1946 x7303.
“In addition to providing educators with a prime opportunity to spotlight performance excellence and strengthen stakeholder relationships, this award also offers a means to generate additional learning from recognized quality champions,” said ASQ President Roberto Saco.
NQEC is the nation’s leading conference for teachers, administrators, and support personnel to learn about the use of quality tools and concepts that can be applied to improve U.S. schools. It is an outstanding opportunity for educators seeking awareness, commitment, refinement and measurable progress in applying continuous improvement approaches and processes. In addition to numerous special sessions for K-12, it is also a venue for educators and administrators to interact with their peers from school districts across the country and around the world. For more information, visit http://nqec.asq.org/index.html.
The American Society for Quality, www.asq.org, has been the world’s leading authority on quality for more than 60 years. With more than 93,000 individual and organizational members, the professional association advances learning, quality improvement and knowledge exchange to improve business results, and to create better workplaces and communities worldwide. As champion of the quality movement, ASQ offers technologies, concepts, tools and training to quality professionals, quality practitioners and everyday consumers, encouraging all to Make Good Great®. ASQ has been the sole administrator of the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award since 1991. Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wis., ASQ is a founding partner of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), a prominent quarterly economic indicator, and also produces the Quarterly Quality Report.
