Capable, visionary leadership at all levels of the organization that is constantly focused on the aim of the system is necessary to sustain high-performance results that inspire and engage students and other stakeholders. Setting clear direction, facilitating innovation, establishing a student-focused, learning-oriented climate, as well as demonstrating clear, visible values are key roles for effective leaders. Leadership must be both personally committed to and actively involved in communicating and reinforcing the school system's values and expectations to both internal and external customers/stakeholders.

Customer-driven quality is the foundation for a quality system and includes all attributes that contribute to creating value and satisfaction for internal and external customers. Meeting/exceeding student and other stakeholders' (e.g., parents, businesses, suppliers, taxpayers) needs and expectations must be a constant focus of the system. Knowing and continually monitoring these needs/expectations (current and emerging) are essential functions at all levels of the organization.

Satisfying and delighting students and stakeholders require a constant, unswerving focus on students, stakeholders, and operational results. Student performance, organizational process, human resource, business, and supplier/partner support results must be monitored continually to determine the overall performance of the system. The use of a balanced composite of performance measurements and indicators (leading and lagging) will offer an effective means to verify that value and satisfaction has been created for all students and stakeholders.

Quality management objectives must stress community responsibility and citizenship. Health, ethnic, safety, and environmental considerations should be taken into account in all the operations of the school system.

Partnership development is about building internal and external relationships to accomplish the strategic goals and objectives of the school system. Developing such partnerships with external suppliers and stakeholders and internal co-producers (i.e., teamwork) is one key to achieving performance excellence. The key requirements for success of these partnerships are addressed through regular communication, evaluating progress, and processes in place for adapting to changing conditions.

The pursuit of quality and operational performance goals of the organization requires that process management be based on reliable data, information and knowledge gained through careful and systematic analysis. This requires that a set of processes are in place to:

1. Collect and analyze relevant data
2. Convert the data to information and knowledge
3. Share it throughout the organization to create the understanding and wisdom that are necessary to make appropriate decisions, solve problems, manage variation in and improve the system continually.

Such knowledge must be made available to all internal and external stakeholders.

High-performing organizations have a strong future orientation and are willing to make long-term commitments to students, customers, suppliers, the community and other key stakeholders. The constancy of purpose must permeate the entire system and its culture.

Design quality and prevention places a strong emphasis on building quality into key work processes and support services. Problems and waste prevention are achieved at much lower costs when intervention occurs “upstream” at earlier stages in these processes.

A timely, more flexible response to internal and external customers is a priority for any organization. Responding quickly to student/stakeholder requests is also essential to organizational success as determined by “end-user” satisfaction. Relationships built on trust, confidence, and loyalty are also essential here. Schools and departments must be committed to simplifying and shortening work processes and paths to achieve major improvements in response time.

An organization's success in improving performance depends on the skills and motivation of its workforce. Employee success depends on having meaningful opportunities to learn new knowledge and practice new skills. To this end, the school system must invest in the development of the workforce through education, training and the creation of opportunities for continuing growth focused on “success and high student achievement for all.”

Achieving the highest levels of quality requires a well-defined and well-executed approach to continual improvement. Using a Plan/Do/Study/Act (PDSA) Cycle enables the organization to achieve higher levels of performance. This approach should be embedded in the way a school system functions:

• Improvement is part of the daily work of all schools and departments,
• Improvement processes seek to prevent problems by eliminating them at their source, and
• Improvement is driven by opportunities to do better, as well as problems to be solved.

The best chance to improve a school system, school, and/or classroom occurs when there is an alignment of “system” aim (i.e., purpose, intent) to operational processes (i.e., methods, work) and intended results (i.e., output, outcomes). Essential work functions (e.g. teaching) must be in line with the planning, curriculum, staff development, and assessment frameworks that guide their deployment. It is crucial that this “aligned management system” be understood and followed by all internal stakeholders.

(A systems perspective) – A “system” is a collection of inter-related processes and people that work together enabling an organization to accomplish its aim. The success of the school system is dependent upon people working together through core work processes toward a common aim that inspires and engages students and stakeholders.

All students, staff, and stakeholders shall be treated fairly and without regard to race, color, national origin, gender, age, handicapping condition or geographic location in the county.