---

School Board Journal
November / December 1995
January / February 1996

---

Quality management for schools
By PETER LOEHR

---

In these days of school reform and restructuring, as one fad follows another, school leaders are seeking proven principles upon which to base policy, curricula, and classroom teaching practices.

One such set of principles is that developed by W. Edwards Deming.

Deming is credited with being "the American who taught the Japanese quality" and as the consultant who taught Ford Motors how to build in quality so that "Quality is Job One." Although his work was in the fields of commerce and industry, Deming was one of the outstanding educators of our time. Rather than teaching a particular subject, he taught the principles of learning.

Deming taught industrial managers and employees what might be called "study skills" in today's curriculum. At the job site, he taught people how to learn new skills and acquire, or create, new knowledge.

These are the very skills today's students need to learn if they are to keep up in a world where, according to various forecasts, people will change careers (not just jobs) a dozen times or more during their working lives.

Deming's concepts have been put to the test perhaps more thoroughly than any other learning principles, and they have repeatedly proven their worth. Instead of the short-term, micro-studies typical in the field of education, Deming's principles have been proven effective in the multi-national economy during the last five decades, with millions of learners, resulting in profits of billions of dollars. In the manufacturing sector, there is a record of almost half a century of steady improvement for those Japanese companies that began using Deming's principles in 1950. This improvement is not due to better machines, technology, or robotics, but rather to a workforce educated according to the Deming principles. In brief, Deming taught workers how to work smarter.

There is also a growing body of successful applications of Deming's principles to classroom learning and school administration. Many school district offices are realigning what they do and how they do it, based on Deming's principles. Many site-based and decentralization efforts are focusing on Deming's concepts to guide administrators and teachers in new avenues of collaboration, participatory problem-solving, and school improvement.

To show how the essence of Deming's concepts applies to learning, I have rewritten his 14 main points as affirmative statements for administrators, teachers, or students. (To see how this was done, see "Rewriting Deming for schools," below)

If these affirmations are embodied in school philosophy and policy, internalized by administrators and teachers, and systematically taught to and modelled for students, better learning and higher achievement will result.

Deming's 14 principles for students and educators

1) I constantly seek to improve my approach to learning and the techniques I use. I am active in the learning process because I share in the responsibility for learning how I learn best.

2) Poor, incomplete or late work less than I am capable of is unacceptable to me.

3) I accept responsibility for inspecting and correcting my own work processes and products.

4) I respect the tools of learning. I seek the most appropriate quality supplies and equipment available for my work.

5) I constantly improve the products of my learning.

6) I am responsible for developing and implementing a self-directed plan to increase my knowledge, skills, abilities, and attitudes. I am not entirely dependent on teachers and schools for what I learn. I have special interests to pursue independently of scholastic requirements.

7) Learning is leadership: leading myself. Learning is also participating in the leadership of others, sometimes by following, sometimes by cooperating.

8) Self-doubt and feelings of inadequacy are fears that always inhibit learning. I continually work to reduce fears, anxieties, and their causes.

9) I break down barriers that separate me from other learners so that cooperative, assisted learning, sharing, and problem-solving can flourish.

10) I create my own slogans, exhortations, and affirmation statements, rather than look to others to create them for me.

11) I seek quality, rather than "look long" work products.

12) Joy in my work and pride in my product keep me focussed on quality. I enjoy what I do and where I am. School and work are pleasant, cooperative, helpful, nurturing places for all concerned. The more joy there is in the work place, the higher the quality of the work.

13) I vigorously increase my knowledge, skills, abilities, and attitudes to improve my present abilities and to prepare for future opportunities. I cannot depend on others to "give" me all I need to learn.

14) I take action to accomplish my life's transformation. I don't just talk about it. I act!

Will these principles work for students and educators? I have conducted pilot studies comparing the perceived study skills and behaviors of academically successful and unsuccessful students. Teachers and administrators responded that the better students exhibited more of the 14-point behaviors than did the lower-performing students. In follow up discussions, teachers, administrators, and graduate students expressed conviction that students would learn more if they applied Deming's principles to their own learning. As Deming taught Japanese and American workers, these principles directly increase learning and, when learning increases, performance improves.

Deming's work also demonstrates that almost every employee not merely the intellectually gifted or the highly self-motivated is fully capable of mastering the principles of learning and thereby learning more effectively and efficiently. This suggests that the principles also will work for students at almost any level.

Although these 14 points may initially appear to be simple, common sense, and even commonplace, they are not being used by most administrators, teachers, and students. These concepts are not usually taught, they are not usually contained in curriculum and course guides, and they are not consistently encouraged or modeled. But it is not difficult for administrators and teachers to help students develop techniques and activities to integrate these concepts into their daily behavior.

These 14 principles have successfully taught millions of workers worldwide to improve their own learning abilities. At a time when the future is uncertain and all fields of knowledge are changing and growing, it is essential that students learn these same lessons. Deming's principles are a proven key to improving learning skills. The student who integrates these 14 affirmations is well on the way to taking charge of his or her own life-long learning.

Peter W. Loehr is a researcher and a consultant who works with school districts nationwide. He may be reached at 306 Atterbury Boulevard, Hudson, Ohio 44236; telephone, 216/656-9067.

Rewriting Deming for schools

written as affirmation statements to make them easily understandable and useable for administrators, teachers, or students. To illustrate, these 14 learning points were generated this way:

Deming: Cease dependence on mass inspection.

As applied to learning: Learners have a responsibility to inspect and correct their own work and products.

Affirmation statement: I have a responsibility to inspect and correct my own work and products. When I accept responsibility to inspect and correct my own work and products, my learning will increase significantly.

As applied to learning: Be on guard to your own fears and anxieties and continually work to reduce fears, anxieties, and their causes.

Affirmation statement: Self-doubt and feelings of inadequacy are fears that always inhibit learning. I continually work to reduce fears, anxieties, and their causes.