The purpose of this study was to identify those elements of the Baldrige Education Criteria for Performance Excellence that central office leaders, principals, and teachers perceive as having an impact on collective teacher efficacy. The study determined if there was a relationship between the perceptions of central office leaders, principals, and teachers concerning the implementation of the criteria, the difficulty of implementation, and the impact of implementation on collective teacher efficacy. The population for this study included sixty individuals from three school districts from Texas, North Carolina, and New Mexico who have implemented the Baldrige Education Criteria for Performance Excellence for a minimum of five years. The Delphi Technique was used for the study utilizing a questionnaire linked to six of the seven categories of the Baldrige Education Criteria for Performance Excellence. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, which were reported using numerical and graphic techniques. The key findings of this study suggest that the Baldrige Education Criteria for Performance Excellence, which the three study school districts chose as a framework for improving organizational performance, has had a perceived positive impact on collective teacher efficacy. The following conclusions were drawn from the data analysis: ?? Implementation of the Baldrige Criteria requires a long-term commitment, ?? Districts committed to implementation of the criteria develop systematic approaches to management processes, persevere in their deployment, and continually assess performance to determine areas for improvement. ?? The difficulty of implementation of the criteria relates to the effort required to align and deploy systematic approaches throughout the organization. ?? Commitment and implementation begins at the senior leadership level of central office and cascades through the organization to principals and classroom teachers. The extent to which systematic management approaches have been deployed to the classroom teacher level determines the level of impact of implementation on collective efficacy. ?? The Baldrige Education Criteria for Performance Excellence provide a framework for school districts to improve organizational performance from a systems perspective to achieve organizational and student success. ?? The more mature a district??s deployment/implementation of the criteria, the greater the impact on collective teacher efficacy.

The purposes of this study were: (a) To determine whether full-time teaching faculty and full-time administrators perceive the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) 1998 Education Criteria for Performance Excellence (ECPE) to be appropriate for assessing Virginia community colleges, and (b) To determine if differences in perceptions exist regarding demographic variables among full-time teaching faculty and among full-time administrators in the use of these criteria to assess Virginia community colleges. Data were collected from a random sample of 129 full-time teaching faculty and 57 full-time administrators using the seven categories and 18 items of the 1998 ECPE. Demographic factors included years of teaching experience in education, years of administrative experience in education, major teaching area, highest degree level earned, college enrollment, and age. A mean was calculated on the perceived appropriateness of each of the 18 items of the 1998 ECPE for faculty and administrators. A t test or an analysis of variance was conducted on the scale means for faculty and administrators to determine if differences exist regarding demographic variables and the perceived appropriateness of the 18 items of the 1998 ECPE by faculty and administrators. The Scheffe post hoc analysis revealed a significance difference for administrators in the college transfer and the technical classifications of major teaching area. The major conclusions were: (1) faculty and administrators perceived the 1998 ECPE as "somewhat appropriate" for assessing Virginia community colleges, (2) faculty and administrators perceived each of the 18 items of the 1998 ECPE as "somewhat appropriate" for assessing Virginia community colleges, (3) the major teaching area was not a factor in full-time teaching faculty members' perceptions of the 18 items of the 1998 ECPE's appropriateness for assessing Virginia community colleges; however, the major teaching area was a factor in full-time administrators' perceptions and this statistically significant difference could possibly be attributed to their low rate of response with only 47.4% of administrators surveyed responding to this question, and (4) years of experience in education, highest degree level earned, college enrollment, and age were not factors in full-time teaching faculty members' or full-time administrators' perceptions of the 18 items of the 1998 ECPE's appropriateness for assessing Virginia community colleges.