Date: Tue, 6 Sep 1994 20:31:35 -0400 Originator: rego-l@pandora.sf.ca.us Errors-To: sbuckley@path.net Reply-To: Sender: rego-l@pandora.sf.ca.us Version: 5.5 -- Copyright (c) 1991/92, Anastasios Kotsikonas From: Peter Pflaum To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: Re: Empowered to Withhold Poor Work Discussion Total Quality In 1950 W. Edwards Deming, an industrial engineer, introduced to Japan a method of statistical quality control. Over the last several decades Deming's approach has become well-known as quality control circles. An analysis of Deming shows there is a basic misunderstanding of evaluation in manufacturing. Similar confusion is shown by belief that objective testing is likely to improve educational quality. A central point in this discussion is the difference between standards and quality. Multiage grouping in schools can achieve quality when people of various ages work together to achieve results of distinction. "The Total Quality Classroom" (Bonstingl, 1992) applies to education Deming's 14 principles for Total Quality Management (TQM). John Jay Bonstingl sees relevant similarities of business organizations and schools. Alan M. Blankstein (1992) explains how five of Deming's principles translate into school terms. Principals and superintendents are management or leadership; teachers are employees, leaders, and managers; students are employees; student knowledge is the product; parents and society are customers; legislators are the board of directors. Lewis A. Rhodes explores TQM concepts concerning values. He points to importance of the totality of educational organizations. Work processes encompass a unified system. Synergy "In a school, everything important touches everything else of importance," notes Theodore Sizer recognizing "the synergistic character of a school" (Sizer, 1991, p. 32). "No Pain, No Gain" suggests restructuring often involves painful break with tradition. Effective change demands attention to all parts of a school. "The Quality School" (Glasser, 1990) is an adaptation of the book by the same name where psychiatrist William Glasser, M.D., examines educational application of TQM. In analysis of control theory, motivation theory, and non- coercive management employed by "lead-managers," Glasser recognizes naturally resulting high- quality educational outcomes. Our system must encourage lead-management in teachers and principals. It must discourage "boss- management," a scientific management approach employing fear, coercion, and intimidation. Because of district office bureaucratic power struggles, Glasser feels lead- management usually must be initiated at the building level. He sees teachers and principals as leaders who can make a real difference in producing high quality American schools. Quality Versus Standards Can quality be defined, or is it more accurate to view quality as a recognizable characteristic? Quality isn't something you lay on top of subjects and objects like tinsel on a Christmas tree. Real Quality must be the source of the subjects and objects, the cone from which the tree must start. To arrive at this Quality requires a somewhat different procedure from . . . . "Step 1, Step 2, Step 3" instructions . . . (Pirsig, 1974, p. 262). "Quality can be defined only in terms of the agent. Who is the judge of quality?" (Deming, 1986, p. 168). Deming sees determination of quality as involving three agents, including workers and managers as well as customers. Deming's philosophy represents a conceptual shift in how we view organizations. Quality does not result from inspection. Inspection and standards reduce rather than promote excellence. Quotas, inspections, and slogans exhorting persons to work harder and faster do not motivate. They merely defeat the purpose. We must pay attention to process, but effective process cannot be prescribed. It is developed through attention to guiding principles. Process in any organization is unique. Harmonious relations should bloom spontaneously as flowers do. It is a poor workshop where operators and foremen are considered to be part of the machinery and required to do a job specified by set standards. What constitutes a human being is the ability to think. A workshop [and a school] should become . . . place[s] where people can think and use their wisdom (Ouchi, 1981, p. 228). Inspection of schooling through instruments such as standardized tests does not improve quality. Emphasis on teamwork rather than on individual competition enhances productivity. Grades and similar assessment measures do not promote excellence. They defeat it. Some leaders forget an important mathematical theorem that if 20 people are engaged on a job, 2 will fall at the bottom 10 per cent, no matter what . . . The important problem is not the bottom 10 per cent, but who is statistically out of line and in need of help (Deming, 1986, p. 56). Asking teachers and schools to rework mistakes following years of system failure is not a feasible path to improved educational outcomes. Parents and communities must work with teachers and administrators in developing and adapting a process capable of yielding educated, skilled, value-driven youth. Adapting Deming to schools involves restructuring our educational organizations as dramatically as the Japanese restructured their business organizations. Dewey's presence can be seen in efforts to adapt Deming to education. Thinking and Doing Schools must, as Dewey advised, reconnect thinking and doing. Group and teamwork, projects, integrated curriculum, peer tutoring, and teacher as facilitator reflect views of both Dewey and Deming. Multiage nongraded grouping is a logical framework where such educational approaches can work. In education as in industry "defects are not free. Somebody makes them, and gets paid for making them" (Deming, 1986, p. 11). Rework of defective goods is not free; it is expensive. The product of schools is student knowledge. When student knowledge is defective, it must be reworked, compounding time and expense. Members of the educational community who define quality -- students, teachers, administrators, and society must have input into our system of education. As organizations mature and grow in size, they tend to become more structured and bureaucratic. Bureaucracy separates thinking from doing (teacher-proof curriculum, textbooks, etc.). Under scientific management the doer merely follows instructions. Doers are often placed in difficult and unmotivating circumstances. There may be fool-proof systems, but often the fools are too clever. This results in more inspections, more layers of management, more bureaucracy. Years after publication of A Nation at Risk (1983), American Federation of Teachers president Albert Shanker notes implementation of numerous and various school reforms throughout our country. Largely, these attempts have not positively affected student learning (Shanker, 1990). Often in education sound ideas are found "ineffective" following poor implementation. Sometimes implementors fail to follow guidelines closely enough. Consolidation of One-Room Schools "Peter E. Pflaum"