Quality in Education

Recently, the Cedar Rapids Community School District created "Quality Levels" for staff.  The levels were the expected outcomes for continuous improvement that we would hope to see in all classrooms (K-12) over a 3-5 year period of time.  (In addition, quality levels were developed for support staff as well.)

Baldrige category 1: Leadership- calls for senior leaders to "set and communicate direction within the organization"- the purpose of establishing these documents.  Originally, the 4 Quality Levels were created as a single document that did not differentiate between the various K-12 grade levels in the school system.  As we began to communicate and share these documents with the teaching staff, it was evident (based on feedback from our stakeholders) that some consideration needed to be made for the various abilities and grade levels within the school system.

The question that quickly rose to the surface was "Is Continuous Improvement different at the Elementary, Middle School and High School levels?"  Indeed, quality and continuous improvement DOES look different at the different levels.  Our teaching staff was quick to point out that the process for creating classroom mission statements and student-created ground rules is much different at the elementary level (where the students stay with one teacher for the entire day) vs. at the middle and high school (where students may see 7-9 different teachers in a given day).  They were right... the logistics and structure of the elementary schools vs. the secondary schools needed to be considered if there was going to be "buy-in" from staff.

Through the help of the Districts Quality Liaison's (the District's Leaders of continuous improvement), the elementary, middle and high school teachers revised the 4 Quality Levels to closer reflect the environments in which they teach.  These changes were well received from the rest of the teaching staff at the various levels and we are on our way to communicating these expectations throughout the district.  Without the act of customizing quality to the individual school levels, I don't believe the expectation of continuous improvement would be well received.

What do you think?  Does quality and continuous improvement look different at the elementary, middle and high school level?  What are the differences?  What can schools do to standardize continuous improvement while allowing for individualization?

Jay

Posted by Jay Marino at 06:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Superintendents- Are you registered yet??

June 25-27, 2006
Renaissance Vinoy Resort
St. Petersburg, FL

ASQ's Education Leadership Summit for Superintendents is a unique event bringing school district leaders from around the country into a discussion of the leading issues they face every day. Limited to just 60 attendees, this roundtable event features an intense two-day dialogue with experienced superintendents who use the concepts of continuous improvement to achieve high performance in their districts. The goal of this summit is to bring together educational leaders who have the desire to make things right, and provide them with the answers they need to make necessary change.

Learn more about this conference online!

The Superintendent is the primary leader of the school system and has the responsibility for setting and communicating direction for all stakeholders.  This conference will provide all of the necessary ingredients for the superintendent (and a key central office administrator) to refine his/her knowledge and skills in art of leading a school district based on quality and continuous improvement.

Encourage your Superintendent and key central office administrator to register today!

Jay

Posted by Jay Marino at 07:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by Jay Marino at 07:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Often times educators will ask "why do we have to use the Plan Do Study Act cycle to make improvements?"  My response has always been, "if you're not using PDSA, then what process are you using to make improvements?"

When creating action plans for the School Improvement Plan (SIP), schools often create a laundry list of events, purchases and activities. Schools have struggled to identify and utilize a data-driven process to make improvements.  Effective action plans (or improvement theories) are based on root causes and aligned to best practices and research. 

The stakes are high and accountability for student achievement is ever present.  As educators, we need to ensure that we are using the most effective practices, processes based on data and best practices. 

How would you respond to the question "how do you improve a process or system?" 

Jay

Posted by Jay Marino at 01:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

How satisfied are customers? How content are stakeholders?  Leaders focused on continuous improvement find themselves asking these questions to get a "pulse" on the system and to have an ear for the voice of the customer.  It has long been recognized that the key to success of any organization- is customer satisfaction.

The idea behind "customer focus" is to understand what the customers (students, parents) need and want, and then provide it in an efficient way. To be successful, customer and stakeholder satisfaction metrics and measurement processes need to be embeded and ongoing- a best practice that is often misperceived. Requesting feedback from customers once a year is just not enough for continuously improving processes in schools. More importantly, once customer or stakeholder satisfaction data is collected, it must reviewed by stakeholders, analyzed for trends and be used to drive improvements within the school or district. 

Typically, the concept of a "customer" has not been greeted with open arms by the education community. Educators have believed this foreign concept has been reserved for companies or corporations outside of public education.  I belive this is true, in part, by the fact that public schools have traditionally benefited from a monopoly on the education market and have not concerned themselves with customer satisfaction.  Regardless of the quality of the school, parents continue to send their child.

Schools that don't focus on customer satisfaction, may find themselves losing enrollment to a variety of competitors including:  online or virual schools; home schooling; private/parochial schools or chronic absenteeism and drop-outs.  School districts need to create systems of strategically obtaining customer and stakeholder satisfaction data from students, parents, staff and community members.  Classroom teachers need to gauge the level of satisfaction from their students and parents so that improvements can be made "in process" and immediately. 

Several quality tools can be used by the teacher to gauge student satisfaction levels including: 

• Fast Feedback-  This instrument allows teachers to capture "fast feedback" from students through a series of questions measured by a likert scale
• Plus/Delta- This quality tool allows students to share "strenghts" and "opportunities for improvement"
• Quality Quadrant- This tool allows feedback in 4 areas including: concerns; compliments/kudos; questions; and suggestions for improvement

How do you check the pulse of customer satisfaction? Do you have processes in place to hear the voice of the customer? How do you gauge satisfaction in your school, your classroom?  Are your students, parents and community satisfied with the educational process?  How do you know? 

Jay

Posted by Jay Marino at 01:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)