Submitted 6/13/05 for peer review presentation to Florida Atlantic U Abstract Using Demings Organizational Principles to Assess and

Guide Education Reform Policy By Thomas F. Kelly, Ph. D. The excellence we seek in learning is not only possible, but staring us in the face For twenty-five years the education reform movement, currently driven by federal and state departments of education, has attempted to bring about significant change in student achievement. During that time the entire American education community, politicians and others have been engaged in education reform involving countless hours, tremendous expenditure of money (billions), time, work and honest effort. These efforts have been based on state and federal policies that have been encoded in reform legislation by each of the 50 states and Congress. Sadly, we must confront the fact that, while a small number of schools have shown some progress, nationally student achievement is basically unchanged. It is very close to where it was twenty-five years ago. The state and federal agencies leading creating reform policies that drive the reform effort have engaged in a series of strategies and practices that are quite consistent across the 50 states. They have established educational laws calling for mandated changes in schools. These include calls for accountability from schools. Standardized and state tests are published periodically to hold schools accountable. Numerous strategies have been devised to evaluate school effectiveness. To date no such accountability has been demonstrated by the policy makers themselves for the effectiveness of their policies and the reform movement, which they define and drive. It is time to question the policies that form the foundation on which the entire house of education reform is built. W. Edwards Deming has presented the best process/model for successful systemic organizational change. This article will apply/compare Demings 14 Points to the various practices of the present education reform movement. In so doing, we can see where the reform movement has deviated from Demings quality model and suggest adjustments that can make educational reform successful. When we see how consistently present reform policy violates Demings principals, it is no wonder the tremendous efforts to date have not succeeded. Reformulation of education reform policies aligned to Demings organizational theory offers an alternative for policy makers that can restructure the educational system and yield the quality needed.

Until we examine and replace flawed policy we will continue to spend billions on reform practices that have not and will not work. Tkellly7662@aol.com For conf program After 25 years of educational reform involving legislation developed by the federal government and all 50 states, student achievement is approximately where it was when we started and student discipline is generally viewed as much more problematic. It is time to assess the policies driving. The work of W. Edwards Deming offers us the structure not only to assess these policies but also the guidance we need to create effective policies that can bring the reform to date so elusive. Using Demings Organizational Principles to Assess and Guide Education Reform Policy By Thomas F. Kelly, Ph. D. The excellence we seek in learning is not only possible, but staring us in the face For twenty-five years the education reform movement, currently driven by federal and state departments of education, has attempted to bring about significant change in student achievement. During that time the entire American education community, politicians and others have been engaged in education reform involving countless hours, tremendous expenditure of money (billions), time, work and honest effort. Sadly, we must confront the fact that, while a small number of schools have shown some progress, nationally student achievement is basically unchanged. It is very close to where it was twenty-five years ago. The state and federal agencies leading the reform effort have engaged in a series of strategies and practices that are quite consistent across the 50 states. They have constantly established educational laws calling for mandated changes in schools. These include calls for accountability from schools. Standardized and state tests are published periodically to hold schools accountable. Numerous strategies have been devised to evaluate school effectiveness. To date no such accountability has been demonstrated by the reformers themselves for the effectiveness of the reform movement. W. Edwards Deming has presented the best process/model for successful systemic organizational change. This article will apply Demings 14 Points to the various practices of the present education reform movement. In so doing, we

can see where the reform movement has deviated from Demings quality model and suggest adjustments that can make educational reform successful. 1 Create Constancy of purpose.

Unfortunately, the reform movement has changed frequently in form and substance. This typically has coincided with changes in leadership at the state and federal levels. The overall purpose has been to improve student achievement. The mandated means to improve schools however have shifted periodically from focus on such things as setting up site based management teams, to increase parent involvement, to development of authentic assessments, and others, till we arrive at todays standards movement. What has not been defined as the clear purpose is what Deming defines as quality, I. E. commitment to continuous improvement. Instead we commit to the latest state mandate for the time the existing leadership is in place, knowing that the mandate will change with the next leader and thus change the direction for improvement yet again. Presently schools are committed to the latest set of state and federal mandates, but not to continuous improvement. 2 Adopt a new Philosophy

State and federal education agencies have consistently violated this principle. They have had a consistent philosophy to improve education through mandates of various practices to schools. It has not worked. They need a new philosophy to continuously improve their own processes. To the extent schools have a philosophy, functionally it amounts to a set of strategies to deal with the latest set of state and federal mandates until leadership changes and a new set of mandates is imposed. They have been told to develop their own missions, but then to satisfy the latest mandates imposed. The new philosophy needed by educators is the same as for leadership; commitment to continuous improvement. No organization is ever perfect. All need to constantly strive to improve themselves. This should be the new philosophy of all interested in school improvement, especially state and federal leadership agencies and school leaders. 3 Cease dependence on mass inspection to improve Quality.

The reform movement consistently violates this principle. Accountability for improvement is presently mandated in two forms in all states. Mandated state and/or standardized tests are the means to improve student achievement. Teacher evaluation is the mandated means to improve instruction. Both of these

mass inspection processes for accountability have been in place for decades. Neither has resulted in significant improvement in student achievement. Deming has pointed out that the worker must inspect his or her own work for quality while the work goes on. Waiting till the product is finished and then having it evaluated by others is too late. William Glassers (1992) psychology supplements and supports Demings ideas. He explains that what is needed is self-evaluation. Indeed, only self-evaluation leads to excellence. Excellence cannot be mandated. Excellence is a choice. No one has ever made anyone else excellent. The only person in the world that can make me excellent is me. Only continuous self-assessment will lead to continuous selfimprovement. Experientially this is obvious to us all. Those people we view as excellent are committed to their own improvement and the means is their own self-assessment. Those who excel at nothing assess everyone else but themselves. We need not only individuals, students, teachers, and administrators to self assess and self-improve, but organizations as well. Not only do schools have to commit to continuous self-assessment, but state and federal agencies as well. These agencies constantly evaluate others. They never evaluate themselves. It does not occur to them to evaluate their own work, their own leadership. 4 End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price alone

Unfortunately, most schools violate this principle. The low bid is not always the least expensive. Inferior products do not save money. This process needs to be reviewed and modified. Even more importantly, hiring practices frequently stress hiring people for the lowest possible salary. This results in the best people either not signing on or signing on until they gain adequate experience to get more money down the road. It is a false savings. 5 Improve constantly and forever the system of production

Chronic problems have chronic causes. Treating the symptoms does not solve the problem. Improvement efforts must shift focus from improving the students or improving the teachers to improving the system. The workers (teachers and students) are no more responsible for poor achievement then the toll takers were for the slow traffic flow on the Hudson river bridges and tunnels before the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority decided to remove the tolls on one side, double the tolls and collect them one way, and reallocate the toll takers from the free side to double the number of toll takers on the collection side. Traffic flow improved dramatically in both directions because resources were reallocated and

restructured, not because the toll takers worked any harder or because of massive injections of more money.. We must identify the systemic policies, practices, belief systems, etc. that are dysfunctional and change them. As long as these systemic causes remain, the resultant systemic problems will remain. Both leadership agencies and schools must commit to ongoing systemic selfassessment and self-improvement for excellence in education. This process must involve all staff in identifying organizational needs, setting priorities and making improvements, not just leadership (Kelly, 1995). 6 Institute training on the job

Most staff development done in education has had little or no lasting positive impact on the system. This is true despite the fact that extensive resources have been expended in these many efforts. The problem lies in the structure of staff development as it is typically conducted in education. Nonetheless, doing the job while improving the job will invariably involve staff development. For this to be successful, we must change the structure of staff development. Three necessary steps must occur for staff development to effectively change the system: A Staff to be trained must see the need for training. This is usually best accomplished by effective use of data (Kelly, 1991). B Staff to be trained must be given opportunity to be involved in selecting/designing the training. C All staff involved in the change should be trained with the appropriate administrators. (For more specifics on this see Kelly, 1995) 7 Institute Leadership

We need a new paradigm for leadership. Traditional Bureaucratic leadership with its authority driven processes is pass. Authority may bring a degree of compliance. Only commitment can bring excellence. Compliance driven organizations will not be able to compete with those driven by commitment. Successful organizations will be driven by the commitment of their staffs to ongoing self-assessment and self-improvement (I e quality) of themselves individually and their organizations collectively. Since excellence is a choice, excellence in an individual requires only the individuals choice to commit. Excellence in a group requires the groups choice to commit. This is a function of leadership, not authority. Glasser elaborates on this with many examples in his Quality Schools: Managing Students Without Coercion (1992). His psychology clearly explains the inevitable destructive outcomes of coercion: alienation, hostility, adversarial relationships,

resentment, resistance, etc. All of these are the mortal enemies of excellence in any organization. In his excellent book, The Twenty-one Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, John Maxwell (1998) notes that one of the key responsibilities of leaders is to create more leaders. Recognizing that humility is the first of all the virtues (Covey, 1990), the new leader will seek out leaders in their staff, work to create and improve these leaders, realizing that an excellent organization will not be the product of one person alone. The whole concept of shared decision making is built on recognition of the ever-present talent, experience and energy in people. The leaders goal is to mobilize these resources. The leader knows that the collective wisdom and resources of the group is far greater than that of any individual, including the leader. It should be noted that some forms of shared decision-making has been attempted. Unfortunately these have been state mandated and prescribe and therefore for the most part resisted and unsuccessful. The requirement to participate is coercive and has led to compliance participation in most cases. For commitment, participation by choice only is necessary. 8 Drive out fear

The primary cause of fear is coercion. This explains the failure of decades of leadership efforts to bring about successful educational change driven by concepts like mandates and accountability. Fear is not an effective motivator for excellence. When people are afraid, they are motivated to defensiveness, to avoid, resent, sabotage, deny responsibility, become cynical etc. They strive to avoid punishment and do only that which they believe will not bring them harm. This explains why things like twenty years of threats about accountability such as publishing state test scores for schools annually in newspapers has had no positive effect. It should be noted that not only school people are reacting to this fear. Many members of state and federal agencies striving honestly to lead this change live in constant fear of failure as well. They do not understand the self-defeating nature of their strategies. They need to drive fear out in their own organizations as well as stop imposing it on schools. 9 Break down barriers between departments

Internal competition weakens organizations. It is fine for Ford to compete with General Motors. We get better cars that way. It is destructive for Ford workers to compete with each other. We get worse cars that way.

One of the systemic changes most needed is a process to remove teacher isolation and find ways to network the sharing of the many successful practices and materials that exist in any school but are presently hidden in individual teachers classes. The leadership agencies can be most helpful here. They can support such things as the creation of new software that can be placed on the Internet and made available to all schools free. So too can all sorts of teacher made materials that they are willing to share. This would greatly enhance the resources of any school at virtually no expense and diminish dependence on expensive commercial resources. There is also a need for a process that fosters administrative collaboration and mutual support. Competition among administrators is common and counterproductive. Administrative practices and strategies can also be identified and made universally available on the web. Here again the agencies can provide a centralizing source to accomplish this. It must also be noted that the annual publishing of student test scores fosters schools to compete with each other rather than share their successful programs, practices, materials, etc. Ron Edmonds observed over twenty years ago that we already know what we need to improve schools. What we need is a method to disseminate it. This should not be a highly bureaucratized process. It should simply be a process that allows any teacher or administrator to enter their suggestions, materials etc. in an organized site that would be easy for others to navigate. Let each professional decide which ones they want to try rather than the past practice of bureaucratic filtering and approving of them. Teachers are professionals who can best determine what they each need in their individual classes. They are individuals each dealing with unique classes of unique students. What works best for one in their situation might not work at all for another 10 Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for work

This goes to the heart of the current standards movement. What has essentially happened is the leadership agencies have mandated that all students will become experts in all subjects. This logical fallacy is known as reducio ad absurdam (or extension to the absurd). The important and valid idea of high standards has been extended to impossible standards. There are no teachers who are experts in all subjects, much less students. Nor will there be, mandates not withstanding. Demings quality concept provides a functional process: to strive for continuous improvement. Wherever my school is, the goal is to improve it. How much? As much as we can. How long? Forever!

The mandates also require all students to reach certain levels at the same time. For example, By eight grade all students will... The truth of course is they will not. With all our lip service to diversity we deny the most important diversity of all. Each child is unique. They learn in different ways and at different rates. Yet we are mandated to treat them all the same. More absurdity. Certainly our goal is excellence for all. We will not get it by treating them as if they were all the same. We must also recognize that each one is entitled to pursue their own individual excellence and construct a system that enables them to do so. (See Kelly, 2004.) 11 Eliminate work standards, eliminate management by objectives

We have been trying this for at least the forty years that I have been an educator. Once again Deming is correct; there is no real evidence of significant resultant improvement. There should be only one standard: ongoing self-assessment and self-improvement. This should of course be measured to ensure results. The schools job is not only to improve itself but also to demonstrate clear evidence of improvement. While the process is the same, it will not look the same in each school. Once a school commits to ongoing self-assessment and self-improvement, success will follow. It should be noted that the rate of improvement will accelerate as the school learns and adopts Demings methods. The sky is the limit. Paradoxically the higher standards of student achievement now so sought after and bafflingly elusive, will become reality 12 Remove barriers to pride of workmanship

Karl Marks made a brilliant observation (one of his few) that the industrial revolution had alienated man from his work. The shoemaker used to make the whole shoe. He could see the product of his work and take pride in it. On the assembly line he merely tacked heals on shoes. That was now his tedious role and there was no longer any pride in his work. The present reform movement stresses criticism. For excellence in any organization those who work in it must feel genuine accomplishment. This is facilitated by self-evaluation of successful work. A teachers job is to empower people to learn. A leaders job is to empower teachers to teach. Implementation of Demings 14 points will empower all to produce quality in their schools and have pride in their workmanship. Success is a powerful motivator for both children and adults. We cannot have quality in our schools without this feeling of pride in both. 13 Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement

In order to implement the structural changes needed, the leader must be proactive in terms of both advocating and modeling the desired behaviors. A clearly defined, simple planning process must be established to enable broad participation (Kelly, 1991). Leadership must mobilize the whole staff in this effort. Kelly (1995) advocates the use of needs assessment surveys as a manageable way to get input from all concerned, set organizational priorities, build consensus and support and as one important method to measure success in change over time. As Deming has emphasized, we must make decisions based on data. This simple planning process must become permanent, institutionalized and ongoing. 14 Put everybody to work on the transformation.

The leadership model must replace the bureaucratic model of the Boss deciding on what and how everyone else must change. Once consensus is reached, it is feasible to focus collective energy, intellect, experience, etc. on priorities for improvement. Since these priorities reflect the prioritized needs as viewed by all, they will willingly participate in the change process (Kelly, 1991). It is precisely in the mobilization of these resources that the road to quality lies. We frequently attempt change orchestrated by one or a few. Many good ideas fail because we neglect most in the process or simply attempt to impose change on them. Conclusions The excellence we seek in learning is not only possible, but staring us in the face. Dr. Deming has shown us the way. It is in applying his 14 points as policy to the organization that is school that we can identify obstacles to change and free the talent, energy and creativity of our people. That alone will bring about the excellence that waits to be liberated in our teachers and students. Now the challenge rests on leaders, especially leaders at the state and federal levels to review their ineffective policies and move to more promising alternatives. It should be noted that the ideas of Glasser, Covey and others compliment and enhance those of Deming and contribute greatly to the improvement of any organization. References: Covey, Stephen R. The seven habits of highly effective people. New York: Fireside, 1990. Deming, W. Edwards. Out of the crisis. Massachusetts: Institute of Technology Center for Advanced Engineering Study, 1986.

Glasser, William. The quality school: Managing students without coercion. New York: Harper Collins, 1992. Kelly, Thomas Character education: Natural law, human happiness and success. 1997. http://www.drtomkelly.com Kelly, Thomas. Practical strategies for school improvement. Wheeling, Illinois: National School Services, 1991. (Also available in Spanish.) Kelly, Thomas. Systemic assessment for quality schools. 1995. http://www.drtomkelly.com Kelly, Thomas. Teaching disabilities: A new philosophy of education. Manuscript in progress, 2004. Maxwell, John C. The 21 irrefutable laws if leadership. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Inc. 1998. Dr. Thomas F. Kelly is Associate Professor of Educational Administration, Leadership and Technology at Dowling College, Oakdale, NY. This article is from Dr. Kellys latest book, Teaching Disabilities: A New Philosophy of Education that is currently in progress. tkelly7662@aol.com His website is www.drtomkelly.com

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