ISO, LEAN, 6 Sigma and Baldrige in Education?
ISO, Lean, 6 Sigma and Baldrige are popular approaches to quality and continuous improvement in health care, manufacturing and service industries. As increased accountability and external demands for results become more prevalent, educational organizations are also beginning to pay attention to these frameworks.
Each of these structures are different, yet have some common elements. For example, these approaches to continuous improvement have similar and deep-rooted core values such as: management by fact, customer focus, systems perspective, focus on efficiency, use of measures, quality tools and a focus on process improvement. Out of the 4 mentioned frameworks, it seems that the Malcolm Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence is most popular in the education market.
Many school districts are begining to "customize" their own version of these continuous improvement frameworks. In essence, educational organizations are benefiting from implementing parts and pieces of Lean, 6 Sigma, ISO and Baldrige that make sense within their organization. There really isn't a "one size fits all" solution... it is up to educators to determine what framework will work most effectively to accomplish results.
How do you see these models fitgin in education? Can "business" approaches like these work in schools? What are your experiences with these models?
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Comments
There are other good management style related education resources:
Education improvement resource links, including:
Quality @ Mt. Edgecumbe High School and Continuous Improvement for Better Schools
Also, good books: http://www.curiouscat.com/management/learn.cfm
Posted by: John Hunter | May 10, 2006 03:44 PM
Thanks for sharing the additional resources, John.
Jay
Posted by: Jay Marino | May 11, 2006 07:50 AM