2018 Award Recipient

Alamo Colleges District

Alamo Colleges District (ACD) is the largest provider of higher 

education in South Texas. Its five independent colleges (Northeast 

Lakeview College, Northwest Vista College, Palo Alto College, 

St Philip’s College, and San Antonio College) provide two-year 

degrees that focus on preparing students to transfer to baccalaureategranting institutions and workforce development programs that 

help build new careers and meet the needs of business; ten education 

and training centers that offer a wide range of education and 

training for the community and military; and three district support 

operations centers. The Alamo Colleges District service area includes 

Atascosa, Bandera, Bexar, Comal, Guadalupe, Kendall, Kerr, and 

Wilson counties.

Commitment to Student Success

• ACD’s Students First culture focuses on removing barriers to 

higher education for potential, current, and former students. 

The district graduation rate is first among all community college 

districts in the state in graduates as a percentage of full-time 

enrollment. 

• Each college starts to engage students as early as middle school 

with high school programming. The district’s 16 Early College 

High School Programs provide dual-enrollment courses and a 

degree plan. Ninety percent of these students graduate high 

school with an associate’s degree. 

• Innovative programs include College Connection to reach out to 

high school students and their families and provide support 

services for continuing enrollment, financial aid, placement, and 

registration. 

• Once enrolled, AlamoADVISE connects each student with a 

dedicated, certified adviser to proactively ensure that skill gaps 

for entering students are closed and to identify resources that 

allow students who would otherwise drop out to continue 

their education. This program has a 94% effectiveness rating 

from students. 

• ACD has developed course maps with top universities in the 

state to increase degree-transferable credits or students who 

desire to transfer and receive a four-year degree. The four-year 

graduation rate for ACD’s students has increased 150% since 

2009 and is best in the state and second among the Aspen 

national cohort of high-performing community colleges.

Commitment to its Communities

• ACD works closely with the community of San Antonio and 

several surrounding counties to implement its community-engaged 

value and belief that education is a pathway to promote a better 

life and fight poverty, hunger, and homelessness. Partnerships with 

Baldrige Performance Excellence Program • National Institute of Standards and Technology • Department of Commerce 

Highlights

• The four-year graduation rate for ACD’s students has 

increased 150% and is best in the state.

• The number of students awarded scholarships has 

increased from 580 to 2,175 and amount awarded 

from $500,000 to over $2 million since 2010.

• The Alamo Way creates a line-of-site from the district’s 

vision to each of the colleges’ classrooms through 

implementation of a BIG “Wildly Important Goal” (WIG) 

related to the number of degrees and certificates awarded. 

This number has doubled to 12,750 from 2013 to 2017, 

which is three times the state norm.

• ACD student satisfaction with the overall educational 

experience is 88.4%, more than two percentage points 

higher than the national norm as measured by the 

Community College Survey of Student Engagement 

(CCSSE).

 
2018 Award Recipient

Alamo Colleges District 

businesses and advisory boards have helped to create grants and 

scholarships that further strengthen the connection between the 

city and the colleges. The number of students awarded scholarships 

has increased from 580 to 2,175 and amount awarded from 

$500,000 to over $2 million since 2010.

• ACD has located education and training centers in the poorest 

neighborhoods and developed Veterans’ Centers to provide

critical skills needed by businesses and to secure employment 

for these students. In 2017, voters supported the district’s plans 

for increasing cutting-edge education and training by approving 

a $450 million bond to improve facilities and technology.

Distributed Leadership Model

• The Alamo Way: Always Inspire, Always Improve leadership 

philosophy has created a system-wide culture that balances 

alignment among all colleges, preserving the autonomy of each 

college to serve the needs of its community and achieve student 

success. Each college is independently operated with its own 

governance and full accreditation for a ten-year period from 

the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission 

on Colleges (SACSCOC). The Alamo Way creates a line-of-site 

from the district’s vision to each of the colleges’ classrooms 

through implementation of a BIG “Wildly Important Goal” (WIG) 

related to the number of degrees and certificates awarded. 

This number has doubled to 12,750 from 2013 to 2017, which 

is three times the state norm and double the average of the 

Aspen national cohort of high-performing community colleges.

Financial and Market Performance

• ACD is one of only 11 community college districts in the nation to 

achieve bond rating levels of AAA from S&P and Aaa from 

Moody’s—the highest level available. This rating is based on the 

strength of financial policies focused on managing debt and 

 evolving sources of revenue.

Student Satisfaction

• ACD student satisfaction with the overall educational experience 

is 88.4%, more than two percentage points higher than the 

national norm as measured by the Community College Survey of 

Student Engagement (CCSSE). Additional CCSSE measures of 

 student top-box satisfaction in all areas, including academic 

advising and counseling, transfer advising, skill lab, and tutoring, 

reflect continued improvement that exceeds the national norm. 

Workforce Engagement and Results

• Engagement of faculty and staff in ACD’s autonomous structure is 

created by a unifying focus on student success, principal-centered 

leadership, and performance excellence. The “leader-in-everyseat” philosophy means that every member of the workforce has 

an ownership in student success, which is reinforced by ACD’s 

own WIGs that create a line-of-sight alignment to the single, 

overall, district goal (BIG WIG) of number of degrees conferred.

• ACD exceeds the national norm in the Personal Assessment 

of the College Environment (PACE) survey for workforce overall 

climate scores, key satisfaction and key engagement factors, and 

communication’s effectiveness, with two of the district colleges in 

the top 10% for overall climate score.

Best-Practice Identification and Sharing

• To promote the availability of top 10% and top 25% comparisons 

across all community colleges, ACD has formed a comparative 

data cohort with colleges that participate in the College Excellence 

Program of the Aspen Institute. ACD is one of the top-performing 

(top 15%) community colleges invited to compete for the 

Aspen Prize.

• ACD leverages innovation, promising practices, and proof of 

concept as part of its commitment to student success. Two annual 

summits are held at each college and at the district level to share 

practices and initiatives that have had significant impact and 

may benefit other departments, colleges, or the entire Alamo 

Colleges District. AlamoADVISE and the Early College High 

School Program are examples of programs created by one college 

and shared district-wide.

For more information:

Alamo Colleges District

201 W. Sheridan

San Antonio, TX 78204-1429

www.alamo.edu

Baldrige Performance Excellence Program

The Baldrige Program educates organizations of all sizes and 

from all sectors in organizational performance management and 

improvement. We also administer the Malcolm Baldrige National

Quality Award. Our key services are to identify and recognize 

role-model organizations, share best management practices, 

and help organizations achieve best-in-class performance levels.

We are the only public-private partnership and Presidential award 

program dedicated to improving U.S. organizations. 

For more information on the Baldrige Program: 

www.nist.gov/baldrige | 301-975-2036 | baldrige@nist.gov

Baldrige Performance Excellence Program • National Institute of Standards and Technology • Department of Commerce