The Partnership for Excellence (TPE) announced the names of two high-performing organizations as recipients of the 2024 Awards for Excellence. The awards represent Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia, and Illinois's highest honor for performance excellence through innovation, results, and visionary leadership using the Baldrige Excellence Framework®.
The 2024 Award Recipients - listed by award - are:
- Meridian Community Unit School District 223, Stillman Valley, IL (Gold, Achievement of Excellence)
- Perry County Board of Developmental Disabilities, New Lexington, OH (Silver, Commitment to Excellence)
The mission of TPE is to cultivate organizational performance excellence and continuous improvement in organizations from all industry sectors. By providing a framework for performance excellence through the Baldrige Excellence Framework®, organizations have a greater focus on customers, process management, innovation, work systems, and organization-wide results. These organizations typically see lower costs, improved productivity, and increases in both employee and customer satisfaction leading to growth in market share. TPE’s primary product is a comprehensive assessment that helps organizational leaders better understand and prioritize key strengths and opportunities for improvement.
All applicants were rigorously evaluated by an independent board of examiners in seven areas defined by the Baldrige Excellence Framework®: leadership; strategy; customers; measurement, analysis, and knowledge management; workforce; operations; and results. The evaluation process for each of the recipients included more than 1,000 hours of review and a site visit by a team of examiners to clarify questions and verify information in the application. Site visits were conducted via a hybrid approach of in-person and virtual. An independent panel of judges reviewed each organization’s evaluation, approved the final feedback reports, and developed award recommendations, which were ratified by the TPE Board of Trustees. Award levels granted to recipients can be bronze, silver, gold, or platinum level.
Meridian CUSD 223, which received a gold level award, is a rural school district in northern Illinois covering 120 square miles in Ogle and Winnebago Counties. It is a consistently high-achieving school district earning multiple national recognitions for academics and culture, with its four schools serving almost 1,500 students from pre-K to 12th grade. Perry County Board of Developmental Disabilities, which received a silver level award, is a government agency that supports people with developmental disabilities in Perry County, Ohio. Through its mission to make connections to promote abilities and enrich lives, the agency aims to support people with disabilities to have full participation in their communities.
The Partnership for Excellence’s 2024 award recipients will be honored at an awards banquet on September 9th during TPE's annual Quest for Success conference, which will be held September 9-10, 2024 at The Ohio State University. During the conference, past Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipients, TPE award recipients, and performance excellence professionals will present information on their performance excellence journeys and share best practices in plenary sessions, breakout sessions, and in informal discussions with conference attendees.
