When Status Quo Won't Do.

A school district's total quality initiative brings rapid performance improvement

Her pencil clutched tightly, the 1st, grader was intently focused on finishing her homework. Near the end of the last spelling exercise, the girl's tiny hand started to tire, arid the carefully printed letters began to wander down the page.

"That's okay," her mom assured her. "The letters are right-it's good enough."

"No, mommy," said the child determinedly, reaching for her eraser. "It's not good enough. I want to do quality work."

Clearly, when the mother of one of our students related this story to us, it demonstrated the way in which quality and continuous improvement have permeated our school district's culture, reaching even the youngest students. It is the kind of impact we had hardly dared hope for when we first turned to a total quality initiative as a tool for improving our performance across the board.

School District 15 always has strived for excellence, and our students' performances and our positive relationship with the community have indicated we were doing a good job. However, our efforts to achieve excellence were based on many random acts of improvement.

Sure, we had some good results, but we were not as effective as we knew we needed to be. We realized we had no systematic approach for setting quality standards, aligning our efforts to enable us to reach those standards and measuring our performance to determine progress toward improvement.

Resource At Hand

We were fortunate to have an outstanding quality and continuous improvement resource within our community- Motorola, the first winner of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Robert Calvin, then Motorola's chief executive officer, generously shared some time with me. He conveyed his passion for total quality as the single most important measure of the company's success and related how Motorola developed its Six Sigma criteria as a structure for achieving the highest possible level of quality across the entire organization. (Six Sigma, a measure of excellence, means delivering top-quality services and products while virtually eliminating all internal inefficiencies.)

I came away awed at his enthusiasm and convinced that we must not have any less passion for the 13,000 children in our school district.

Shortly after that conversation, I attended the national 1995 Quest for Excellence Conference, where the Malcolm Baldrige winners were honored. I was struck by the high levels of excitement and enthusiasm displayed by the winners and other presenters. One experience that crystallized our determination was hearing a ceiling tile manufacturer wax rhapsodic about how a quality program had revolutionized his company. Making better ceiling tiles clearly cannot be as important as educating our children.

We believed that the private sector s approach to total quality, as implemented by Motorola and dozens of other highly effective organizations around the world, was indeed applicable to a public-sector organization such as our school district. We wanted to be measured against the same criteria that businesses, health care, government and services use to measure their performance.

Such an initiative would not only enable us to attain higher levels of quality across the district, but it would also demonstrate, for the first time, a more stringent accountability to our "customers"--our students, their parents, the community, even the taxpayers in our district.

Districtwide Participation

The Malcolm Baldrige framework gave us an understanding of how our district could develop a results-driven, systemic approach to organizational improvement. We began by studying quality principles and tools and learning as much as we could about how other organizations were applying a quality approach to affect continuous improvement.

We opted not to create a quality task force or steering committee, but rather to work through existing leadership structures within the district. We reasoned that if quality were to become integral to all our activities, it should not be singled out as a special initiative. Rather, it should simply be considered the way in which we do our jobs. Our administrative leadership team and the principals of our 19 schools would drive the initiative.

This required a significant investment in training so that all those who were to lead our total quality initiative would know how to apply quality processes and understand what we expected them to accomplish. Our leadership team quickly embraced the concept and enthusiastically set out to implement it throughout the organization.

We focused our efforts with the development of a new Strategic Vision 2005. This declaration created a clear mission and vision for the district: to produce world-class learners by building a connected learning community. In creating the plan, we sought out the opinions of more than 2,000 of our customers to determine their expectations and what it would take to satisfy those expectations.

The board of education set goals to support the achievement of our new strategic plan. One of these goals was for School District 15 to "excel as an organization, continually raising the benchmark in all categories of the Lincoln Award for Excellence." In Illinois, the Lincoln Foundation for Business Excellence annually recognizes organizations that have achieved excellence in overall quality systems and continuous improvement processes, based on the Malcolm Baldrige criteria.

We met the board's goal, first by attaining the Level I Lincoln Award for Commitment to Excellence in Education in 1997 and by becoming the first school district in the state in 1999 to be honored with the Level III Lincoln Award for Achievement of Excellence, the highest recognition awarded by the foundation.

Rapid Improvement

As we replaced what we now think of as a tinkering mentality with a core value of continuous improvement, we also emphasized "management by fact," which means that we measure everything important.

The facts show positive results that clearly indicate a systematic focus on quality does yield rapid performance improvements. Our leap from Level I to Level III of the Lincoln Awards in just two years is a convincing demonstration of the rapid improvement we've achieved across the entire organization, but we also can point to specific results.

For example:

Sixty-nine percent of the subject-area and grade-level scores increased, based on results from the illinois state achievement test. In actual versus predicted scores from the state test, which we use to identify the value-added benefit the district provides to students' education, District 15 now shows significant differences in 12 of 13 subject and grade levels tested (as compared to other school districts in the state with the same percentage of low-income students and similar mobility rates). Students who speak English as a second language have increased their scores the past two years in three of the four grade-level or subject-area rests.

* Student performance

* Customer satisfaction

At the beginning of the 1999-2000 school year, almost all 820 teachers in the district asked their primary customer, the parents, three questions: What do you want or expect your child to learn in my classroom/subject area? What do you expect from me as a teacher? What do you feel is your role as a parent in relation to school? These questions clarify customer expectations and allow teachers to track levels of customer satisfaction during the school year.

For the past two years, District 15 has surveyed all students in grades 3-8 to measure their satisfaction with their school experience. Results show improvement in eight of 10 areas where trend data are available. The district also annually surveys all students to determine enthusiasm for learning for 11 subject areas at each grade level. In 1998-99, we saw a 33 percent increase in the number of subject areas showing gains in enthusiasm. Among our staff, we saw increases in five of the seven scales used to assess staff satisfaction levels. Six of the seven scales are now above the American Customer Satisfaction Index averages that we use as our benchmark.

* Operational improvements

The number of lost days, measured by workers' compensation, has decreased by 21 percent over the last three years even as the number of staff members increased. Student accidents in the schools and playgrounds have decreased by 21 percent over the last three years, and staff accidents have decreased by 36 percent. Almost all our schools have doubled their resource center circulation in the last three years. Schools are now averaging more than 5,000 books in circulation per month. The consumption of gas and electricity per square foot shows steady declines over the past three years. The time it takes to process a purchase order has been reduced from seven days to three days.

Connecting with Business

As we've shifted to a quality/continuous improvement process, we found it enhanced our ongoing relationship with another of our key customers--the business community. Because we're now speaking the same language they do, they are listening and responding to us as never before.

Our first request to the business community no longer is for money, but a plea they share their knowledge of process evaluation with us. Now when we seek help and advice, we generally are met with enthusiasm. Our quality education included benchmarking classes taught by Motorola University. From there we selected best-in-class candidates to benchmark, including Motorola University itself, Arthur Andersen and Quaker Oats, along with several educational systems. Our benchmarking partners were very helpful and extremely open about sharing information with our team members.

We've been welcomed warmly as we seek partnerships with businesses in our community. For example, Kraft Foods is participating as a training partner in the American Society for Quality's Koalaty Kid program, which we've implemented across the district. The Cook County chapter of ASQ also provided support.

Other examples of partnerships include Home Depot's Midwest headquarters and training center, Target and Northrop Grumman Corp., whose engineers designed and worked with our staff members to build the District 15 Space Shuttle, using a converted school bus. They also tutor junior high students in mathematics and science. And District 15's Investment Advisory Committee includes eight members of local businesses.

An Ongoing Process

With each of our Lincoln Foundation awards, we have received valuable feedback from Lincoln examiners about areas that still need improvement. These needs include consistently applying cycles of evaluation and improvement, especially in key support functions; reducing inconsistencies in the process used to select data for aggregation and analysis; improving the way we select comparative world-class benchmarks for all measures and evaluate their relevancy to the organization; and improving the monitoring of support processes.

After each award, we have convened more than 200 community leaders in feedback sessions. These have provided valuable insights because, as total quality management authority W. Edwards Deming once said, "A system cannot understand itself. The transformation requires a view from outside."

We use this feedback, along with continuous self-assessment, to stay focused on the future. There always will be additional opportunities for improvement. As our 1"-grader so succinctly pointed out, the status quo is not good enough.

We have two specific goals: to apply Six Sigma techniques (such as process mapping and root cause analysis) to project-focused quality improvement and to apply for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award within the next three years. We will do this not for the recognition or the public relations value of winning more awards, but because the rigorous standards these processes impose force us to excellence and because of our conviction that our key customers--our kids--deserve nothing less than total quality.

John Conyers is superintendent of the Community Consolidated School District 15.

Baldrige Initiative: The Air Cover You Crave 

PEGGY SIEGEL

In 1999, the National Alliance of Business and the American Productivity and Quality Center created BiE IN, otherwise known as the Baldrige in Education initiative.

We took this action so education leaders would have what Bob Jones, the head of NAB, refers to as "air coyer"--external support that convinces the public to embrace long-term systemic improvement efforts.

BiE IN's vision is to provide the national infrastructure to accelerate and scale up implementation of Baldrige in states and school districts nationwide to meet state standards and achieve excellence and equity in education. Our mission is to create a high-performing education system at all levels that continually improves student performance by developing a common language, understanding and approach.

The Baldrige in Education Initiative has adopted a three-pronged strategy:

National Infrastructure

* Forge a national infrastructure of key business and education organizations to align education reform policy and best practice.

NAB and APQC co-manage the Baldrige activities We invited 24 other leading business and education organizations, including AASA, to become national partners.

By producing written materials and sponsoring conferences and workshops, the partners are building awareness for using the Baldrige criteria in education. The national partners also are reinforcing participation of their members in collaborative grassroots implementation efforts.

And we are identifying opportunities to align the education system itself, for example, by connecting regional accreditation, state evaluation measures and Baldrige-based assessments so that schools and districts can avoid expending valuable time and energy trying to satisfy fragmented, disjointed performance requirements.

* Accelerate state/community efforts to build and sustain capacity to improve student and system performance.

BiE IN has created a collaborative infrastructure of relationships with six state partners--Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, New Mexico, Ohio and Texas. Leadership teams from these states are aligning their reform policies and best practices and institutionalizing training and networking capacity for districts to use Baldrige.

At least two school districts from each state serve on the state leadership teams. Their role is to provide state policymakers with strategic advice on implementing Baldrige so teams can scale up such support to school districts statewide. (John Conyers, superintendent in Palatine, Ill., serves this role in his state.)

BiE IN is not suggesting that states and communities drop everything and start over. Far from it. Our strategy is to assist states to "connect the dots," with proper deference paid to existing resources, priorities and relationships.

Each team has two BiE IN coaches, from places like the Pinellas County, Fla., Public Schools and the North Carolina Partnership for Excellence whose experiences in implementing Baldrige can help others. We periodically network the coaches and teams in "professional group therapy sessions" so they can learn from one another.

As managing partners, NAB and APQC also share lessons learned in real time so all states benefit from the experiences of our six state partners.

Tailored Assistance

* Customize and provide information and support to key stakeholders engaged collaboratively in Baldrige-based improvement efforts.

Having a national partner infrastructure and six state/district learning laboratories is invaluable for another reason. It means that BiE IN will be able to address the needs of stakeholders who wish to implement comparable change efforts. For example, leaders inside the National Education Association and the National School Boards Association are advocates of using Baldrige to sustain education reform. Our organizations are eager to work together to reinforce collaboration among superintendents, school boards and union leaders in heading up successful improvement initiatives.

Business Advocates

As educators increasingly express interest in using Baldrige to raise student achievement, it is also critical they have business partners who understand and support their efforts. Consequently, BiE IN has created a CEO Leadership Council, headed by Don Fites, retired chairman of Caterpillar Inc. The council is raising funds from the business community to support BiE IN. Members will also provide us with ongoing strategic advice.

In addition, we are creating a Business Partner Design Team, chaired by Norman Rickard, a former senior executive from Xerox and champion of the company's two successful Baldrige Award efforts. The design team will develop materials for business partners to reinforce their participation locally in Baldrige-based education improvement efforts and for educators who wish to engage their support.

This is an ambitious agenda, but clearly one whose time has come. No longer do business advocates have to make the case for using Baldrige in education. Superintendents like John Conyers in Illinois are demonstrating through their hard work and success why educators should take action.

BiE IN's challenge is to ensure that needed air cover is available once educators come calling.

For additional information about BiE IN, the Baldrige in Education Initiative, or to be added to the project's mailing list, contact Haley Stein, National Alliance of Business, 1201 New York Aye,, N.W., Suite 700, Washington, D.C. 20005, 800-787-2848 or 202-289-2833, [e-mail]

Peggy Siegel is director of Business/Eduction leadership Initiatives, National Alliance of Business Using the Quality Process for Better Instruction

One unexpected benefit of our school district's shift in to total quality and continuous improvement was the realization we could use the same processes and techniques that were improving our performance as an organization as tools for classroom teaching.

Using the Quality Process for Better Instruction

Three years ago, teachers in School District 15 had no idea how to use quality tools to improve instruction and student performance. Today, well over half of our staff of 800 professionals are using affinity diagrams, fishbone diagrams, flow charting, histograms, run charts, control charts, lotus diagrams, relations diagrams, pareto diagrams, plus/deltas, PDSA (plan, do, study, act) and force fields to continuously improve all aspects of the teaching and learning process.

Our students also love it. As one told us, "It's fun to see how you are doing and what you can improve on."

Within three years, each of our 19 schools will have a team of teachers and at least one administrator trained in the American Society for Quality's Koalaty Kid approach, in which teams of teachers tackle projects using quality tools. This, coupled with the fact that the district has two licensed Koalaty Kid trainers on staff, has allowed for accelerated implementation of the PDSA process in working through projects identified directly from each school's school improvement plan.

And because our schools are managing by fact and using the PDSA cycle for continuous improvement, we have seen consistent and extensive examples of behavior incidents decreasing by more than 50 percent in a matter of months, reductions in errors in student work and an increase in completed homework.

We are convinced that total quality can become a self-perpetuating methodology that can be used effectively in schools and classrooms to bring about systematic, continuous improvements. If you are interested in learning how a quality approach can improve your performance, I'd suggest that you check out www.quality.nist.gov, the Web site of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. This useful resource offers information both on Baldrige standards and various state quality programs.