TQM successes in public schools?

B

Brian Hunt

(note: Public schools in USA are for the public - public schools in the UK are private, fee paying schools such as Eton and Harrow and the one attended by 'socialist" PM Tony Blair , Fettes College)

I got involved in TQM about 18 years ago when working at one of GE's factories. I thought (and still do) that it was great. Since then I've studied Deming and other Quality Gurus and believe that the TQM approach will work for any system.

But industry seem to have largely discarded TQM in favour of Six Sigma. However, it is being picked up in the USA public school system. This article Quality Management in Education: Building Excellence and Equity in Student Performance describes some of the wins. Anyone here had any experience of using TQM in schools? How does this compare with industry?

Great to see TQM back on the agenda!
 
F

fireonce

Yeah, I agree with you.
And I think the important thing is not the method/theory which we adopt, but the attitude we take.
 

Jen Kirley

Quality and Auditing Expert
Leader
Admin
Unfortunately news about schools winning quality awards through TQM/Baldrige is not as common with the hype and hand wringing about No Child Left Behind.

News may be found with a Google search of state quality awards (often modeled after Baldrige) and a search of Baldrige award winners.

The most spectacular example I know of is Chugach school district in Alaska. It shows that great improvement, including test scores, can be achieved by rethinking the way education is done and managed, instead of lengthening the school days or tutoring failing students--in short, more of the same.

Read about Chugach here.

I wish I had personal experience with such a school. I might have felt I could stay in education, but instead I ran as soon as I got the chance. :(
 

gpainter

Quite Involved in Discussions
Our school corporation is starting a program called CARE Community Academy to Reform Education. I have a meeting on this coming up the first week in may. I was looking at the ASQ Koalaty Kids program. Has anyone had any experience in this program? Education has not changed and i feel that the schools and the stakeholders have not done well in preparing all of our students for after high school. We tend to focus on scores rather than learning.
 

Jen Kirley

Quality and Auditing Expert
Leader
Admin
Our school corporation is starting a program called CARE Community Academy to Reform Education. I have a meeting on this coming up the first week in may. I was looking at the ASQ Koalaty Kids program. Has anyone had any experience in this program? Education has not changed and i feel that the schools and the stakeholders have not done well in preparing all of our students for after high school. We tend to focus on scores rather than learning.
You might want to ask Wes directly. I remember hearing (correctly, I hope) he has gotten the program into his area school district.
 
T

Tupham - 2008

I worked in a fee-paying school for 6 years and was involved in setting up the QMS and acted as document controller up to and for a few months after ISO 9001 certification, which they achieved first try.

The main advantage I saw was improvements in the school's admin systems that came from standardisation and documentation of processes. It wasn't applied to teaching.
 
B

Brian Hunt

Thanks for the comments on this topic - one of the big problems in the UK is that schools have to teach to the measures - it's a classic case of "what gets measured gets done" even if it adds no value.

So teachers in state schools have to teach to a tightly controlled curriculum and measure students according to the requirements of external governement departments. This leaves little time for teachers to step back and look at what they are doing and how to improve it (limited organisational slack).
 
B

Brian Hunt

Unfortunately news about schools winning quality awards through TQM/Baldrige is not as common with the hype and hand wringing about No Child Left Behind.

News may be found with a Google search of state quality awards (often modeled after Baldrige) and a search of Baldrige award winners.

The most spectacular example I know of is Chugach school district in Alaska. It shows that great improvement, including test scores, can be achieved by rethinking the way education is done and managed, instead of lengthening the school days or tutoring failing students--in short, more of the same.

Read about Chugach here.

I wish I had personal experience with such a school. I might have felt I could stay in education, but instead I ran as soon as I got the chance. :(

That is very impressive - the other study I know is this one here Quality Management in Education: Building Excellence and Equity in Student Performance which describes the turn around at Brazosport ISD in Texas.
 

Jen Kirley

Quality and Auditing Expert
Leader
Admin
Thanks for the comments on this topic - one of the big problems in the UK is that schools have to teach to the measures - it's a classic case of "what gets measured gets done" even if it adds no value.

So teachers in state schools have to teach to a tightly controlled curriculum and measure students according to the requirements of external governement departments. This leaves little time for teachers to step back and look at what they are doing and how to improve it (limited organisational slack).
Our No Child Left Behind appears to resemble what UK has had going for some years.

Some results are predictably similar: apply a whip and the beast will probably move, but there's no guarantee the poor thing will move in the desired direction.

Interestingly the award was presented to Chugach and then NCLB was rolled out with no audible mention of how the highly performing school achieved its gains. Then again, our Secretary of Education was not from Alaska...

I am straying too close to a political theme and must now back away. :(
 
B

Brian Hunt

Our No Child Left Behind appears to resemble what UK has had going for some years.

Some results are predictably similar: apply a whip and the beast will probably move, but there's no guarantee the poor thing will move in the desired direction.

Interestingly the award was presented to Chugach and then NCLB was rolled out with no audible mention of how the highly performing school achieved its gains. Then again, our Secretary of Education was not from Alaska...

I am straying too close to a political theme and must now back away. :(

Interesting - I think that TQM is perhaps seen as a subversive approach that takes power away from managers by empowering the people that do the job and that deliver the organisations service or product. Demonstrating that massive improvements can be made with out management direction (ref Deming's "Management are only 95% of the problem") can be a threat to the careers of administrators and politicians. I'm assuming that most politicians in USA are as corrupt and self serving as the ones in UK.
 
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