BackgroundDelphi surveys with panels of experts in a particular area of interest have been widely utilized in the fields of clinical medicine, nursing practice, medical education and healthcare services. Despite this wide applicability of the Delphi methodology, there is no clear identification of what constitutes a sufficient number of Delphi survey participants to ensure stability of results.MethodsThe study analyzed the response characteristics from the first round of a Delphi survey conducted with 23 experts in healthcare quality and patient safety. The panel members had similar training and subject matter understanding of the Malcolm Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence in Healthcare. The raw data from the first round sampling, which usually contains the largest diversity of responses, were augmented via bootstrap sampling to obtain computer-generated results for two larger samples obtained by sampling with replacement. Response characteristics (mean, trimmed mean, standard deviation and 95% confidence intervals) for 54 survey items were compared for the responses of the 23 actual study participants and two computer-generated samples of 1000 and 2000 resampling iterations.ResultsThe results from this study indicate that the response characteristics of a small expert panel in a well-defined knowledge area are stable in light of augmented sampling.ConclusionPanels of similarly trained experts (who possess a general understanding in the field of interest) provide effective and reliable utilization of a small sample from a limited number of experts in a field of study to develop reliable criteria that inform judgment and support effective decision-making.

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This research is based on a study of Brazosport ISD, an exemplary school district in Texas that used a quality management approach that resulted in greater equity and higher student performance. Faced with deteriorating state test scores in several schools, particularly those with a high population of economically disadvantaged students, this district elected to apply the philosophy, tools, and methods of quality management as a means to raise student achievement through system alignment and improvement of instructional processes. The findings of the study reveal a school district that successfully transformed its approach to education, redirecting its goals and processes to assure the success of every student. This article provides an analysis of the approach and deployment of changes, outcomes obtained, and implications for continuous improvement in other public school systems. In validation of the success of its new methodology and the results achieved Brazosport ISD won the Texas Quality Award in 1998 and received a site visit for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 1999, the only school district to date to achieve both honors.

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This Delphi study identified the critical processes and performance measures of quality that can serve as a framework for new measures for assessing quality in academic library services and programs. These critical processes and performance measures were developed utilizing the structure and criteria of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award's 1999 Education Criteria for Performance Excellence. A panel of experts from the library profession was selected to participate in a Delphi panel to determine the importance of a list of critical processes and performance measures relevant to measuring quality in academic libraries.The processes and performance measures were identified through a review of the literature and in consultation with a review panel of professional librarians. The results of the study showed that a student, faculty, and stakeholder focus was the most important aspect of academic library programs and services for ensuring quality.he library profession has been seeking new performance measures for measuring quality and effectiveness. The authors hypothesized that a study to determine the importance of performance measures adapted from the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award's (MBNQA) Education Criteria for Performance Excellence afforded a strong potential for identifying performance measures that would advance this inquiry. 1 Established by the U.S. Congress in 1987, the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for Performance Excellence is the most sought a er quality management award and recognizes businesses for achievements in quality University; e-mail: harerj@mail.ecu.edu Texas A&M University; e-mail: b-cole@tamu.edu. John B. Harer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Librarianship at East Carolina . Bryan R. Cole is a Professor in the Department of Educational Administration and Human Resource Development at 150 College & Research Librariesand business performance. The Education Criteria for Performance Excellence were adopted from the business criteria to establish similar high-performance standards and provide the same recognition process for educational institutions. The purpose of this study was to utilize the expertise of a panel of library professionals to determine the critical processes and performance measures of quality most important to academic libraries. This study was designed within the framework of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award's (MBNQA) Education Criteria for Performance Excellence because the criteria for the award have been deemed a very effective tool for evaluating educational organizations and because libraries, especially academic libraries, have implemented many aspects of continuous quality improvement (CQI). 2,3 The MBNQA criteria stress the importance of linking performance measures to critical processes; therefore, both critical processes and performance measures were identified and analyzed by the study. The study identified a significant number of critical processes and performance measures ranked high by the panel and sugges...