Quality in Education

Deming's famous "14 points" have been the foundation of quality since their inception.  By design, point #1 is "Constancy of Purpose" which basically means maintaining a focus of the important long term vision- NO MATTER WHAT.  Leaders establish constancy of purpose by anticipating and assessing the impact of future changes, nursing the culture of the organization needed to adopt the changes, and implementing the changes necessary to make the vision a reality.

Within a strong focus on the important long-term factors, many organizations waste huge amounts of resources shifting focus from one crisis to the next without ever making sustained progress. Leaders ensure the day-to-day issues don't result in a shirting of resources and attention from the organization's "critical few" priorities to the shifting priorities of the day. Without constancy of purpose the rate of improvement over the long term will be greatly diminished.

Constancy of purpose means that quality decisions are not situational. End of month quality is the same as beginning of month. It means that the long term benefit of the organization is not sacrificed to make short-term targets. It means having your eye on the competition, whether it is in your industry or coming from elsewhere, with plans to stay ahead.

Constancy of purpose doesn’t require the threat of a customer leaving to implement corrective actions based on root cause. It means that while your team may argue about how best to accomplish it, no one is confused about the commitment to deliver reliable quality. Constancy of purpose can only exist when leadership lives it, demonstrates it, and won’t accept anything else.

What does constancy of purpose look like in the district, the school and the classroom?  Do your employees, students and customers see constancy of purpose in you?  What does "constancy of purpose" mean to you?  How do you live it?

Jay

Posted by Jay Marino at 07:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (26)

ASQ's Education Leadership Summit brings school leaders from around the country together for a provocative discussion on current issues in education. They've expanded this year's event to include the district leadership team (Superintendent and central office cabinet members).

This summit encourages presenters and participants to work together to explore systems management and Baldrige implementation.  Participants will engage in workshops and activities designed to explore the cutting edge of continuous improvement practices.

 Objectives of the summit include:

*Utilize the expertise of leading professionals.

*Draw on the experience of leaders from other districts throughout the country.

*Apply the content of the summit to the goals and objectives they pursue in their own districts.

Presenters include:  Susan Leddick; President & Sr. Consultant, Margaret Byrnes ;Quality Education Associates, Jay Marino; Assoc. Superintendent, Sandra Byrne; Baldrige Office Program Staff, Jeff Lucas; Baldrige Office Program Staff, Kirby Lehman; Superintendent, Jenks, Diane Bosworth; Assistant Superintendent, Jenks

Posted by Jay Marino at 10:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Is everyone involved in your continuous improvement efforts?  Often, support service departments of educational organizations are overlooked in continuous improvement initiatives, as most of the focus and attention are on the academic work of schools and classrooms.  After all, isn't that what school systems are about; teaching and learning?

Effective organizations involve everyone in continuous improvement.  Support service departments such as: Food Services, Accounting, Human Resources, Custodians, Maintenance, Print Shop and others can directly support the mission and goals of the school system.  Their work enhances the learning environment and supports key classroom processes.  It is critical that everyone understands their role and knows how their work is aligned to the school or district plan.  In the Cedar Rapids School system, support service departments are even creating their own plans on a page (see examples); demonstrating the alignment concept. 

Regardless of position or rank, all employees must understand how their work directly contributes to the vision, mission, core values and goals of the district to ensure optimal, system-wide improvements.  The degree to which these are known is directly proportional to overall organizational success.

Is everyone involved in your continuous improvement effort?  Does everyone know "what is most important" in your system? 

Jay

Posted by Jay Marino at 08:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (32)

How effective is your school improvement plan (SIP)?  Does everyone know the key goals of the SIP? Is everyone aligning their work to it?  Too often, the school improvement plan is nothing more than words on paper which make the people who created it feel good about doing “something” about the problems they are trying to solve.

Think about your school improvement plan for a moment… can you recall the goals?  Does it have meaning to you?  Does it provide guidance and focus for your daily work?  Do the students know what the goals are?

Connecting every student to the school improvement plan is critical.  One way that schools are involving everyone is through the creation of classroom SMART goals- aligned to the SIP goals.  Teachers that align their efforts through classroom SMART goals are able to involve the customers (the students) in the important work of the SIP.  When teachers assist students in setting individual goals, students begin to understand how their work connects to the goals of the classroom (which are aligned to the school improvement plan which, in turn, is aligned to the district strategic plan). 

Classrooms that utilize a continuous quality improvement approach involve students in the monitoring and tracking of their progress toward classroom goals in the classroom data center and in the individual student data folder. Continuous quality improvement can have a tremendous impact on student achievement results when everyone aligns their efforts and daily work to the school improvement plan. 

Is your work aligned to the SIP goals?  Does every teacher and student know what is most important in your School Improvement plan?  The power of systemic alignment is realized when every employee, stakeholder and student understands how the work they do contributes to the SIP focus areas and the improvement of student learning.

Jay

Posted by Jay Marino at 08:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Often, educators applying quality principles are asked, "why a continuous improvement approach?"  The answer: today's students will need a different set of skills to compete in tomorrow's world.  The process and tools embedded in continuous quality improvement allow students to learn skills that will prepare them for the ever-changing world.  Embracing change and managing paradigm shifts may be the most critical skills in tomorrow's employees.  As educators, are we meeting this need?

A brilliant video clip (modified by Dr. Scott McLeod) illustrates this concept powerfully.  I believe the facts below (referenced in the video) will capture your attention as they did mine:

• China will soon become the number one English-speaking country in the world.

• The 25% of the population in China with the highest IQ’s …is greater than the total population of North America.  In India, it’s the top 28%.  Translation for teachers:  they have more honors kids than we have kids. 

• There are over 2.7 billion searches performed on Google each month. 

• The amount of new technical information is doubling every 2 years.  For students starting a four-year technical or college degree, this means that…half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study.  It is predicted to double every 72 hours by 2010.

• Predictions are that by 2013 a supercomputer will be built that exceeds the computation capability of the human brain.

The original video clip was created by Karl Fisch who remixed content from David Warlick, Thomas Friedman, Ian Jukes, Ray Kurzweil and others, added some music, and came up with the presentation.  Kudos to Karl for pleading the case for a focus on 21st century skills!

Shift Happens!  In today's educational system, are we aware of the changes in the world around us?  Are we adjusting our systems to meet the needs of today's learners?  Are we visionary and forward thinking?  Are we really preparing students to be "world-class"?

Jay

Posted by Jay Marino at 08:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (23)