SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT0-1 zm zmm 0) o School Improvement lO. Memorandum to Cabinet from Bonnie Lesley, Sept. 8, 1998, with excerpts from a book on total quality management. The Five Pillars of TOM: How to Make Total Quality Management Work for You by Don Creech. 11. Memorandum to Cabinet from Bonnie Lesley, Sept. 8,1998, with copy of an article she wrote on school restructuring and TQM, Do They Hear What We say? Understanding School Restructuring Initiatives. 12. Memorandum to principals from Bonnie Lesley in Feb. 24, 1999, Learning Links with copies of transparencies from February 1999 principals meeting on school improvement. 13. Memorandum by Bonnie Lesley in Aug. 18, 1999, Learning Links on good teachers
attached article from Education Week, What Makes a Good Teacher? 14. Memorandum from Bonnie Lesley in Sept. 29, 1999, Learning Links on the few essential components of successful school reform
attached article, Perspectives: What Does it Take to Reform a Low-Performing School? 15. Memorandum from Bonnie Lesley in Mar. 1,2000, Learning Links on school improvement
attached article, Getting Results. 16. Memorandum from Bonnie Lesley in June 14, 2000, Learning Links on effective schools research
attached article, Educating Urban Minority Youth: Research on Effective Practices. Y1. Memorandum from Bonnie Lesley in Oct, 2, 2000, Learning Links on what works
attached study, Making Standards Work: Active Voices, Focused Learning. -/^1 10LITTLE ROCK SCHOOL DISTRICT INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCE CENTER 3001 PULASKI STREET LITTLE ROCK, AR 72206 September 8, 1998 TO
Dr. Les Gamine Dr. Kathy Lease Dr. Vic Anderson Dr. Richard Hurley Brady Gadberry Marian Lacey Sadie Mitchell Mark Milhollen Suellen Vann Junious Babbs Dr. Linda Watson Frances Cawthon FROM: Dr. Bonnie Lesley, Associate Superintendent for Instruction SUBJCT: TQM in Practice One of my favorite TQM books is Don Creechs The Five Pillars of TQM: How to make Total Quality Management Work for You. Attached are some of the more relevant (to us in education) excerpts from that book - I hope you find them helpful as we begin thinking about how to implement the Campus Leadership Plan. BAL/adg Excerpts from The Five Pillars of TQM: How to Make Total Quality Management Work for You New York: Truman Talley Books, 1994 This book is about the management problems of our countryand proven solutions to them. The problems seem especially daunting and highly resistant to correction, but that need not be the case. So the book is aimed at every level within every organization because that is where the change for the better must begin, whatever the organization's nature. (2) . .. when it comes to introspection in individual businesses, you will find everything from demal that management change is needed there, to uncertainty as to what is broken, and on to serious doubts about how to fix it even if it is. This book addresses those issues. (2) Our management practices must change. Adequate though not ideal for earlier times they are thoroughly unsatisfactory in an era of intense competition. (3) I've found a TQM program must meet four criteria if it is to succeed. First, it must be based on a quality mindset and quality orientation in all activities at all times, including in every process and product. Second, it must be strongly humanistic to bring quality to the way employees are treated, included, and inspired. Third, it must be based on a decentralized approach that provides empowerment at all levels, especially at the frontline, so that enthusiastic involvement and common purpose are realities, not slogans. Fourth, TQM must be applied holistically so that its principles, policies, and practices reach every nook and cranny of the organization. It [TQM] works successfully in any organization, whatever its size, whatever its nationality, whatever its product or service, whatever its industry, and whatever its market niche. (5) Product is the focal point for organization purpose and achievement. Quality in the product IC imnriCPikla it mmlihi im ___It..___ .1 . " " _ is_impossible without quality in the process. Quality in the process is impossible without the right organization. The right organization is meaningless without the proper leadership Strong,.bottom-up commitment is the support pillar for all the rest. Each pillar depends upon the other four, and if one is weak all are. ~ ------ The five pillars of TQM: Product, Process, Organization, Leadership, Commitment. (7) Various surveys show that a mere 5 percent of American workers are organized into work teams.... The long-standing American preference is for organization by functions with a vertical, centralized structure to provide the oversight. ... the choice of the organizational system, structure, and style ends up deeply affecting th A nct/rkp cnirit o11 ___u :____cri the psyche and spirit of all employees. There's insufficient recognition that the most important system of all is the human system. (10) .. . a decentralized structure facilitates leadership and unleashes creativity. Indeed the kev nilPCtinn ic whAthAr thA r\rnnri'Totir\ ----------------1____...i-.i.. .. . question is whether the organization serves or squashes the human spirit. Therefore how you choose to organize can either make you or break you. (11) There is increasing recognition Ihat how one organizes profoundly affects everything else mH fho Imm .-kT-z-vy-l. U. . .L _ I .. i> z i * and that the team approach produces by far the best results. (12) 1In fact, individual behavior is powerfully shaped by the organizational roles people play. The most effective way to change behavior, therefore, is to put people into a new organizational context, which imposes new roles, responsibilities and relationships on them. . . . your approach must feature goals and tasks which are clearly defined. Finally, success indeed depends on sensitive and focused leadership-which I agree is a resource in very short supply. (13) ... organizing by functions creates separation, not integration. (14) Most centralized organizations have too many managers, and too little management. ... Centralization produces too little managementdespite layers of managersfor two reasons. First, it simply does not create and foster the active, sensitive involvement by managers that is needed. Second, in a centralized system the "management," in the proactive sense, is not found at the frontline level where things to be done need to be managed. (20) .., the application of centralist thinking has been the principal culprit in America's flat productivity growth. . . . (22) I am convinced that the way to win big and grow big is to organize small. My advice to organizational leaders over the years has been: Think big about what you can achieve
think small about how to achieve it. That's because you get things done through individuals and small groups of individuals. (25-26) Any organization will be only as successful as those at the bottom are willing to make it. Their focus, spirit, enthusiasm, objectivity, and motivation are masters that transcend all others in importance. Study after study shows that employees are powerfully affected by the organizational principles and structure that shape their roles, responsibilities, and feelings of fulfillment. (26) The best organizations use the team approach to stay agile and adaptable. (28) The decentralized approach is radically different from the centralized approach discussed earlier. In fact, it's the virtual antithesis, and the differences from the centralized, managership approach show up sharply. The structure is based on Teams, not Functions. The supervisory focus is centered on Outputs, not Inputs. The accomplishment mindset is on the team Product, not on each person's Job. ... Its great and proven strength lies in the creation of new motivation and commitment among ^1 employees and of proactive leadership from the bottom up. (30) I've found the resistance to changing the centralist style is less a matter of hardheaded intransigence than of a lack of insight into the problems it produces. The resistance is buttressed by dim understanding of how a decentralized approach can improve matters (31) If I learned nothing else, it is that what goes on at the front is what determines organizational success-all the rest is background music. (32) Honda organizes by teams, not by functions. (45)Also, every team has goals that give meaning and substance to "Kaizen" (the Japanese term that essentially means "continuous improvement"). One finds measurement at all key product-process interlace points. The results of those measurements and assessments analyzed comparatively with history, goals, like shifts, and like teams. Scoreboards are reflecting those results and standings are everywhere. The objective feedback to the employee is relevant, rigorous, and rapid. As a result, leaders at every level display impressive, in-depth understanding of the subcomponents at each of the various assembly stages of their final product. .. . Honda trains, trains, and trains some more, and special training emphasis is placed on team leaders at every level. ' Each of the Honda principles and the methods used to carry them out are fully oriented to the customers, internal and external. And, Honda is absolutely unyielding on the quality of the product. The employees build the quality in-not inspect it in-at the various subcomponent stages. They do it right the first time and every time to every possible extent. (46-47) ' ... Honda's success with quality circles is due to their being but one of four key parts in Honda's overall approach to detailed employee involvement. (48) It's the management system and the way employees are organized and treated within that system that count. And that applies everywhere. (50) ... continuous, measurable, and incremental improvement.... Everyone I tolked with talks goals in numbers as well as in words, from the bottom to the top. (51) Principles operate top to bottom. Decisions operate bottom to top. (54) The team concept supports the basic attitude that the company belongs to each and every team member, not just management. (57) . a Toyota s principles . .. include high standards, excellent management-labor relations, well-motivated work force, outstanding planning, smooth integration of the various elements, and the pervasive use of goals, measurement, and feedback to employees at all levels. Like Honda, Toyota uses multiskilling as a key feature of its team approach. All team members learn one or more additional skills related to their team's responsibilities. (58) ... open offices and companywide dining are merely the start. It's an important way of making the leaders, the most senior ones included, accessible and approachable. It replaces the usually empty phrase "open door" with lots of opportunities for personal interactions. Those practices demonstrate with actionsnot just with wordsa readiness to listen with interest not aloofness. .. . When the top leader places that kind of premium on seamless communication and openness, it sets the tone for every'one. It's not that hard to instill in the organizational culture, but it has to come from the top. (61) . . . the team concept is absolutely dependent upon mutual trust, mutual respect and mutual support. . . . the leadership challenge is to have no weak links. (79) 31 saw in case after case that if you can create teams of people who care about and trust one another, and get leadership and commitment operating from the bottom up, you can create feats of quality and productivity that appear miraculous when compared to the levels that others are achieving. (83) When you don't have to do it over, it yields great mission efficiency, effort efficiency, and cost efficiency. (121) The centralized approach works to separate the thinkers from the doers. That's one of the reasons it works so poorly. (132) Leaders . .. must not only stick to their knitting, but also frequently reappraise what their knitting is all about. (144) We constantly challenged and reviewed our own most devoutly held beliefs. Paying that kind of attention to the business of the business is fundamental to aware, proactive leadership. However, it simply doesn't get enough attention by enough leaders in enough organizations. (145) ... it is at the top of the ladder that TQM management principles must be supportedeven championed-if they are to be allowed to spread. (147) ... if the organization is wrongly structured, nothing else goes well either. The evidence that this is the case is simply overwhelming. The evidence is also abundant that the right organization-decentralized, team-based-provides the required framework for TQM to operate freely and effectively in every organizational element at all levels. (157) Product is the focal point for organization purpose and achievement. (158) ... all organizations, their subelements, and the individual employees within them have a product. That's true whether those organizations are public or private, whether they deal in goods or services. . . . That product can be identified and defined in terms of its customer, internal or external (159) I I I A common purpose is essential for success. (161) . . . plumbing the extent of the common values, perspectives, and purpose is the surest way to judge whether an organization is being managed well or poorly. (162) The quality mindset. . . manifests itself in the pride and professionalism the employees feel and reflect"Or do not reflect... . Pride is the fuel of human accomplishment. . . Unquality is unaffordable. (166) . . . pride and quality (in all things, not just some things) go together. You can't have one without the other. And you won't achieve professionalism without both. I . . . lack of sensitivity to the wellsprings of quality largely stems from shopworn but doggedly persistent ideas on where to economize. And it usually traces back to the beancounters lound in nearly all companies, especially traditionally managed ones. They VnrMl/ I kn /'net of (L..X , ,l____r_.x1_- 4 I . a know the cost ol everything and the value o! nothing. And they exercise a hammerlock on all the cost and value trade-off decisions. Those beancounters don't fully understand the 4 ifirst effects of their decisions, much less the secondary effects, but those secondary effects /*s ri t m 1 r Ari I 1 J 1 rt I I 1 z, <1 i 1. J - most assuredly influence attitude, motivation, and pride. (167) Quality begets quality. (171) .l.jlAY-?..tto problem whatsoever with diligent efforts to save money. I do have problems big problemswith insensitive bureaucrats who try to save money on the wrong things. (173) Be wary of cuts that affect the quality mindset-don't disable it. (174) I've never seen a sharp organization that didn't look sharp. That's just the start, of course. It must go on to professionalism in all things, but the quality mindset is the cornerstone of all professionalism. A necessary condition of being professional is to look professional. People are affected by their surroundings, the way they're treated, and the way they're led either positively or negatively. It's up to senior leaders to decide which it is to be. (175) Turnarounds, in rny experience, share one common element a change in the way the organizations human system rallies itselfunder changed policiesto bring forth unrealized work-force potential. That slumbering potential is always there. (181) .. . success lies in making each group's product the focal point for purpose and achievement. It also serves as the logical rallying point for quality and productivity. (189) The cycle that shapes the process can appropriately start nowhere else than with the customer's needs and wants. (191) There are at least two "customers" of the American primary and secondary educational system. (1) the student, and (2) those who will use the services of that student. The first isn t complaining about the way the system is working, but the second is. Numerous surveys show how poorly equipped students are t ______favta i techmeal complexity and intensifying competition. Much h^b^n written a^ut to enter a work force that faces increasing ' 7 :. ^77*7 vAjuipcuuuu. iviucn nas neen written atxiut our deficiencies in defining the product of that educational system, other than as graduation' the pntincm mr'innoc r>r\nrirfi ________x- , , . criticism includes concern over the lack of comparative nationd standards and the lack of countrywide testing against such standards. Indeed, there's a strong case to be made that Its the very absence of a satisfactory product definition that leads to policies like "social promotion (moving a student on to the next grade because of age, not accomplishment) Many teachers decry the practice, but most school boards either champion it or tolerate it. rp .f X, * , . ' , ----------------- viiauijJikJll 11 UI lUICldLC I 1 o them It s an answer to alarming dropout rates and the perceived right for all students orQzliiQto__^1/1 th /-- ____ 4.:___ z-i- .1 .. .'x.x. ixMj . aicuiiiHig uivpuul Idles ana me lor to graduate-with or without an education. Given that lack of focus on the customer and the r\rA/li inUnM v.z.... __________ x_ x1_ _ . . (.tiv. product, when you move on to the actual educational processes, it's not surprising that they J 1 , . --------------- vvviwva, 110 iivi ouipiiaillH llldl II vaiy widely, have fuzzy definition and purpose, and often are geared simply to pumping students out the door. (192) Seven-Steps approach to process related problem-solving: 1. What's the problem? 2. Where are we now? 3. 4. 5. What are the root causes? What is needed to improx e? What happened from our actions? 6. How do we hold on to the improvement? 57. Whal is the next item to be addressed? (196) The best way to start is with the basics. Even simple measurement, analysis, and scoreboarding techniques can yield needed insights and point employees in the right directions. (202) Typically, companies that were experiencing the most serious crisis were willing to implement change at a faster rate. Successful companies implemented gradual changes. Total Quality Management truly is a cultural change. It involves a change in both the stated and unstated rules which govern the behavior and beliefs of an organization. Adopting new techniques, tools, or programs such as problem solving working groups can be important-but in themselves do not represent cultural change. (209) ... you don't have to become an expert at statistical and mathematical legerdemain to transform your organization for the better. (211) In God we trust
all others bring data. (240) ... 95 percent of businesses need broad systemic changesnot patchwork changes that leave the traditional style basically untouched. (242) ... quality improvement teams, and, indeed all of the other parts of a TQM system are each well worth doing in their own rights.... But it is all of them working together in a systemic way that produces the dramatic results companies really want. Anyone interested in quality management must consider it as a complete management system. (243) ... six sigma means one is achieving process perfection 99.9999997 percent of the time. Translated, that's only 3.4 defects per million. Six Steps to Six Sigma: 1. Determine what your product is. 2. Determine who the customer is for that product. 3. Identify the suppliers you need for your product. 4. Map out the process you must use in putting it together. 5. Examine that process to eliminate errors and wasted steps. 6. Establish measurement means to feed continuous improvement. (250) Tolstoy: All men's instincts, all their impulses in life, are only efforts to increase their freedom. Wealth and poverty, health and disease, labor and leisure, culture and ignorance, repletion and hunger, virtue and vice, are all only terms for greater or lesser degrees of freedom. (256) ^59^^^ inversely proportional to the degree of management centralization. Bosses need to take a critical look at their entire management system. They must decide, that they will have less control of people and more control of events. That's not a contradiction in terms. (259) Decentralization, empowerment, and ownership created great improvement in our control of events, products, and outcomes. (260) 6How employees feel is even more important than what they know in determining job performance. (262) Matrix management is a blueprint for organizational confusion, which in some of its variations approaches anarchy. It does so in an altogether appropriate quest-the quest for more effective internetting of effort. But the clouded authority and accountability, and the continued dominance of the top-down, functional structure in decision-making and ownership, washes out almost all its beneficial effects. While good people can make it work-after a fashion-that doesn't mean it's the best approach. The best approach is not to organize in the centralized manner in the first place. There's a better way to internet and integrate the organization (269) Surveys show that where you have excessive behavior formalization as the principal management tool you get alienation and apathy, not motivation and initiative. (273) To create organizational success the boss must build a system that, among other TQM principles to be applied, provides widespread empowerment and non-interference from the top. However, the top boss also must stay involved and informed. That's necessary to keep the decentralized empowerment going, and to resist the ever-present tendency of lower-level managers to recentralize. The toss also must know when and where to intrude to head off incipient problems before they can grow to disasters. It is striking that balance between involvement and intrusion that's important. Some characterize the notion underlying that balance as "nose in, fingers out," or NIFO. By whatever name, those at the lower levels quickly perceive how you are striking that balance, and whether their own empowerment is real or fanciful. It's not difficult or complicated so long as you base your actions on trust and respect until the scoreboard and other measurements show that intrusion is required. Leaders indeed should get out of the way, but they also must help find the way, show the way, and pave the way. (281) Nothing speaks louder than powerful, irrefutable indications that you are getting far better all the time. (282) Centralization breeds and nurtures managership.... Decentralization breeds and nurtures leadership. (294) The Japanese call frontline employees associates because their management philosophy is to treat them as such. The Japanese companies also call the superxisors of their teams leaders. That's because they expect them to do some real leading, and they train them accordingly. Tl^ we long have prized managing over leading is one of our biggest national problems. You cannot have leadership unless you belie\ e in it.... There's a vast difference between exhortation and empowerment. You must do more than talk about it
you must change the organization conceptually and structurally to bnng leadership alive at all levels. . . . Obviously, some decisions can only be made at the very topbut they should be rare exceptions, not the rule. And they should deal with major resource decisions and new directions, not day-to-day management. The leaders at the top should chart the course, not constantly steer the ship. (297) 7It's managership, not leadership, that breeds apathy, disincentive, and dependency. I have yet to see a top-notch organization, public or private, that didn't have the benefit of strong leadership. There are no poor outfits, just poor leaders. (300) Leaders must be taught, and can be taught. And they must be taught how to motivate those who work for themand to accept personal responsibility for building common purpose and organizational success. Leading involves determining the right things to do. It involves creating the favorable orgamzational dynamics to get people to commit themselves, energetically and enthusiastically, to bringing those right things about. Leading involves vision and principles. It involves influencing employee mindset and motivation. It involves creating a positive culture and harmonious climate. It involves creating ownership and empowerment in pursuit of the shared vision and common purpose. So leadership is hardly the sole province of the top leaders. And it most definitely is not the centrdist business of just telling employees what to do, how to do it, and when to do it. (301-302) Leaders provide the vision
managers carry it out Leaders make it better
managers make it run. Leaders make it happen
managers hope it happens. Leaders create more leaders
managers create more managers. Leaders address the constant race between inspiration and indolence-and add to the inspiration. ... leaders build commitment through policies that increase motivation and decrease alienation. And leaders constantly probe for evidence of each. That requires involvement and sensitivity. It also requires trust, openness, and unfettered communicationnot aloof, Olympian managerial detachment, as is so common in centralized organizations. ... leaders understand that the way to win starts with the will to win-and that instilling both is leadership business. In that pursuit, leaders understand that fervor feeds on opinions-and opinions feed on presumed facts. So they influence those opinions by getting the actual facts out for everyone's benefit. They combat misinformation, and disinformation, with the straight skinny. They understand that it's objectivity that keeps misdirected subjectivity under control. Uninformed opinions and misplaced fervor thrive in an information vacuum because there's no counterforce at work. Yet most companies and managers pay scant attention to the need to keep employees well informed-or to seek their opinions. They simply don't invoke the four most important words in any management system: What do you think? (304-305) Leadership and motivation go together. (305) The team-based approach is the ideal way to ensure that real empowerment reaches the frontline-and that it gets exercised in a focused and responsible way. (306) Teams provide an ideal structure for recognizing where technology can be fruitfully applied and gaining support for its introduction into the work equation. (308) [Tenacity] is my shorthand for backbone, chutzpah, determination, endurance, fortitude, guts, grit, spunk, stamina, pluck, persistence, and perseverance. (309) 8Without meaningful comparison, people in all walks of life are simply not objective about their strengths and weaknesses. They tend to magnify the former, downplay the latter, and overdramatize their standing and accomplishments.. .. businesses that do not provide measurement and comparison, and most don't, can count on their planning being faulty and their leadership misdirected, because neither is formulated in the harsh light of objective reality, (313) You can't tell the winners without a scoreboard, or tell the losers either. And without a scoreboard neither winners nor losers will know which they are. No one will know how to get better, either. In that regard, I strongly believe a leader's greatest nemesis is human subjectivity. I quickly add that it can be a leader's greatest ally-when marshaled in the proper way. In all cases, the greater the objectivity of everyone in the organizationbased on ample data, facts, and surveys and not on supposition-the better off you are. (314) . . . you have to work hard at keeping organizations decentralized. (315) . . . the best way to achieve coherence and control is through leadership, not rules and managership.... you have to work at keeping decentralization going because of the prior conditioning of generations of our managers.... it takes guts to be a decentralizer, but the payoff is large. (317) The measurement system must not only be simple and understandable, but it must be primarily designed for the employees who are actually doing the work. (319) George Bernard Shaw: The greatest problem in communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished. One of the cardinal rules in effective communication is to be sure you're saying what you mean to say in the first place. (320) It's no mystery to anyone that the language used in an organization is one signal of its policies and practices. (323) I made up and used twenty-five reminders to myself on how to help make communication boundaryless, honest, and unstilted. They reminded me of the keys to making it a language of purpose, not protest, between front and rear: 1. Speak the language of trust, not of mistrust. 2. Don't confuse fancy words with profound ideas. 3. Don't harangue the many as the message for the few. 4. Reward the messengers of bad tidings, not shoot them. 5. Listen intently to the dissenting view
it may be right. 6. Keep all the language goals-directed-not rules-directed. 7. Talk in numbers as well as in words to crystallize purpose. 8. On key issues communicate several layers deep. 9. If the policy is important, put it in writing-concisely. 10. Listen for the echoes to learn if it's all getting through. 11. Follow up to ensure there is full comprehension throughout. 12. Remove all barriers to upward communication. 13. Be candid, and tell it like it iswithout fear or favor. 14. Get all possible facts before expounding on the conclusions. 15. Get out the straight skinnyto combat misinterpretations. 16. Don't overhype or advertise. Let actions speak the words. 9 17. Praising the winners has more power than criticizing losers. 18. Credibility depends on flexibility, not mindless consistency. 19. Knowledge is power when widely shared, not withheld. 20. Feel free to admit you don't know, but you do want to learn. 21. The best opening sentence of all is: What do you think? 22. Listening, Hearing, Caring are the keys to mEdong it thrive. 23. Provide the means and the incentives that will make it work. 24. Go where you need to go. Spend whatever is needed. 25. Treat the communications grid as an electrical grid. Any node failures leaves people in the dark. Fill the vacuums. Find the reason they're there. Fix the grid. (325) In short, leaders need to stay closely attuned to the organization language. It is telling them what the organization is thinking, feeling, and doing. Effective communication depends on the means and methods to make it free-flowing-and also depends on the leadership positively affecting the thinking, feeling, and doing. That can't be done with adequate effectiveness unless employees at all levels are sharing common information about what's going on. Therefore, the need is not only for caring, proactive leadership and free-flowing communication, but also for effective means of information gathering and distribution that provide the insight for enlightened choices and decisions. (326) . . . you must have ways to measure progress throughout. Otherwise you "don't know whether it's doing any good or not" when you take actions to improve. And you don't know where to make midcourse corrections, either. (327) Peter Drucker: If you want it, measure it. If you can't measure it, forget it." Tom Peters: "I haye become a fanatic about quantifyingbut a new sort of quantifying. I insist upon quantifying the soft stuffquality, customer linkups, innovation, organizational structure, people involvement." When used imaginatively [information technology] facilitates decentralized leadership, enlightened decisions, common perspectives, and common purpose. (328) Leadership is needed more than ever. As knowledge and attendant complexity grows the more important, not less important, core values become. Also, complexity calls for even more efficient operation of the human system in every organization, regardless of its type. (329) Leadership is far easier than ever before, not harder. It's far easier (because the tools are available) to provide overall purpose and coherence while at the same time widely distributing authority for agility, responsiveness, and effectiveness at all levels. The best companies, including the Japanese companies, prove it. With such tools we can acquire, aggregate, analyze, assimilate, and disseminate timely management information in more efficient and creative ways than ever before. . . . information technology can and must be used to facilitate decentralization. (330) Paul Strassmann: Automate only after you simplify. You cannot measure what is not defined. Effectiveness is a matter of team performance. Without productivity goals business has no direction. Without productivity measurements business has no control. Without strong leadership little succes.s can be expected. (332) 10 . . . information technologies flatten hierarchies. (332) . . . good communication is simply everyone having the same set of facts. (334) The companies that make the fullest and most imaginative use of information technology in a "think small, tl II graphic example. (336) think wide" contextare leaders in their industry. Wal-Mart serves as a Use information technology to aid the switch from managership to leadership. (341) . .. there must be strong leadership at the top. ... top management must be committed to distributing the authority throughout the organization-so that leadership can be exercised at the cutting edge, where it counts the most. (346) A leader's vision has power only to the extent it is shared by those who are asked to carry it out. (347) Lead by example. (349) Numerous studies show the influence of supervisors' qualities and behavior in shaping the attitudes of their subordinates. .. . I've frequently seen employee behavior and performance swing markedly back and forth as leaders change-even between positive and negative extremes. Positive, constructive behavioral patterns are important in leaders from the frontline level all the way up. (350) I never saw a new leader fail to have an effect. I found that leadership failures usually fit one of three basic patterns.... The first of the three involves the aloof and detached boss who simply doesn't know what's going on and whose employees don't know what he or she stands for. Leadership must be proactive, not reactive. That's what separates it from managership. And proactive leadership depends upon detailed involvement and awareness. The second of the three patterns involves those who practice rule through terror. Their leadership tools are threats, bombast, and intimidation. That intimidator approach is always a loser. Everyone below the boss becomes frightened to take any initiative, and communication dries up completely. (351) The third pattern is at the opposite extreme. That's the type of boss who is all over the place, but "running for office" and gladhanding, not probing, understanding, and setting new directions where necessary. This boss's personality craves the affection of everyone. . . . Such bosses confuse leniency with leadership. . . . employees soon learn it's no use telling them what's going on
they won't do anything about it anyway. Yes, leadership is essential-and it's not managership. But you won't have leadership without the freedom to exercise it. And you can't get it by sloganeering
it depends on structure and system changes that provide the oxygen of empoweiTncnt. Only then will it nourish at every level. And that, in turn, will make the organization flourish. (352) 11 There are six [leadership qualities 11 have found to be of the greatest importance: courage, confidence, savvy, maturity, integrity, and desire. They interact, one with the other. (353) 1. Courage... . courage in interpersonal relationships and in adherence to principle. That brand of courage includes the courage to follow your convictions, but also the courage to change your mind, the courage to say, "I don't know, but 1'11 find out"
the courage to admit that neither you nor the organization you lead is perfect-or ever will be
the courage to keep learning, not resting on your laurels
the courage to place principles over prejudice, and over expediency. 2. Confidence. It goes with courage. Doing great things always starts with the belief that you can. So leaders need the tenacity that flows from confidence, not the timidity of doubt. But there's a vast difference between confidence and arrogance. The confident leader recognizes his or her need to keep growing and learning. The arrogant leaders knows it all, so there's nothing else to grow toward. The confident leader listens to others intently and is not threatened by criticism or the need to change policies that aren't working. In fact, the confident leader continually seeks them out. It's what you leam after you know it all that counts. (354) Some leaders build confidence in their subordinates
others drain it away. You want the first kind
you can't afford the second. Organizations should prize confidence and work hard to build it.... If it's confidence the organization reflects, based on the example of its leadership, the need for continuous improvement is taken for granted. If it's arrogance, forget improvement. 3. Savvy. It's more than knowledge and more than intelligence. It's a practical blend of the two. .. . Understanding, Know-how, Shrewd, Discerning. . . . The savvy are smart enough to recognize what they're dumb about, and take steps to fill in the blanks. 4. Maturity. I'm speaking here of emotional maturity, not age and not experience. (355) Leaders need to be trained so they do not confuse inspiration with intimidation, or being tough with being mean, or exercising control with their own loss of it.... Invariably, the emotionally immature are ineffective-though they fancy themselves the opposite-because the immaturity shows itself in other more subtle but equally damaging ways. Not the least of those are snap judgments and bull-headed obstinacy. That immature kind of leadership behavior is terribly damaging to employee morale and commitment. None of this means leaders shouldn't be tough-minded, make tough choices, and even be tough in handling individuals when required.... maturity is high on the list of leadership qualities. 5. Integrity. To establish organizational character, leaders must reflect integrity and honesty in all their actions, and demand the same from others. (356) 6. Desire.... desire to lead-for the right reason. . . . To make life better for others, not for oneself. That's what sustains the best leaders, and makes them go the extra mile and work unceasingly to make the organization succeed. (357) The most successful leaders, military or civilian, are good with people, and they provide the people-onented leadership example for the entire organization. 12 The strong desire to be the leader who "makes it belter" for others fuels determination that translates into extra effort and concern. (358) those who desire to lead for the right reason have the greatest empathy with those who work for them, and they build the needed rapport between the various layers of the organization. They are comfortable around people because they like people and are secure in the knowledge they are working in the best interests of everyone. (359) . .. they give and then some. Ask them to do a job, they do it-and then some.. . . They're running to make the organization and all its people better off, not running for office or for self-aggrandizement. .,. they're always aware of the need to accentuate each employee's dignity, not tear it down. (359) The more complex the world becomes, the more important core values become. The kind of leadership I espouse here, 1 have found, build loyalty throughout the organization. (360) Protecting cronies ruins many fine organizations. (361) When leaders practice the right kind of loyalty to their employees, they get the right kind in return. (362) I... spent a large amount of time in the selection, training, and grooming of the most senior leaders. Since most companies simply don't groom and train their leaders well, they see no good option but to proselytize and fill top positions by raiding other companies of their talent. .. . Many companies also operate on the flawed theory that you can't do it unless you've done it before. (365) ... I'm convinced leaders are made, not bom. Nurture can overcome nature in nearly all cases, given the right training. (366) Beyond creating the leaders with the right qualities and instincts, there's the matter of creating the organization's competence. That goes hand in hand with the quality of the leadership
organizational competence obviously doesn't happen on its own. It comes from proactive, aware leaders who pay close attention to the training provided to each employee at every level. Unfortunately, surveys show that training is another of the weaknesses in the American management style. Clearly, situation awareness must include assessing internal training needs. (367) America's education system has proved stubbornly resistant to change. (370) Certainly, there's no groundswell for change. As a result, the elected school boards, which theoretically manage the system, end up tinkering on the periphery of its major problems. If the school boards don't get exercised and organize themselves for change in some reasonably consistent way across the land, don't expect change. Given that those school boards are committees, and there are thousands of them, my advice is not to hold your breath waiting for them to act. (371-372) 13. Training has always been important. Globalization makes it even more important. .. . the Japanese view training, including formal training, as a value issue, not a cost issue. They're right about that. . .. greatly expanded training-frequent, focused, formal-pays for itself many times over. Pay the price or pay the piper. (374) .. . devoting time, money, and effort to frontline team leader training makes sense because the caliber of the leadership there determines Honda's success. One simply cannot achieve high levels of competence, or of cooperation and commitment, without ample formal training. It's the leader's responsibility to build the competence and motivation within the organization. In the best companies they also participate in the teaching. Training is, quite simply, one of the highest leverage activities a manager can perform.... A manager generally has two ways to raise the level of individual performance of his subordinates
by increasing motivation, the desire of each person to do his job well, and by increasing individual capability, which is where training comes in. (376) It is generally accepted that motivating employees is a key task for all managers.... You yourself should instruct your direct subordinates and perhaps the next few ranks below them. This doesn't mean, however, that companies should not reach outside for help if that's useful, all needs considered. ... I have one special piece of advice. If the business leaders aren't prepared to do it all, the one thing they simply should not "outsource" is determining the land of training they need to provide. (377) Some see a widely proclaimed erosion in the American work ethic as a sign of our times that's irreversible. I agree there's been an erosion, but I emphatically disagree that it can't be reversed. It's the managers who are failing the workers, not the other way around. .. . the work ethic is alive and well in America. (Provided, of course, that you don't turn the employees from committed to alienated with dumb management practices.) The leadership must provide the training, and the training the leadership. That's what organizational competence and renewal are about. The rest is background music. Fail in that and you fail in everything. (378) ... companies must replace the customary cost obsession with uncustomary' value orientation. And that, in turn, depends on each company's addressing and eliminating the beancounter mentality that's rampant in the traditionally managed organizations. (379) You can find beancounters in almost any job, at any level, in any endeavor. Very often they are in charge. They simply don't pay attention to the human aspects of their undertaking except in the most cursory way. (380) . . . far greater leadership involvement and dynamism are called for in the shaping of the organizational structure and organizational dynamics. What is needed is highly involved leaders-leaders who are not micromanaging but who are creating leadership thinking and involvement by everyone, and eliciting stronger motivation and commitment from everyone. 14The world will belong to passionate, driven leaders, people who not only have enormous amounts of energy but who can energize those whom they lead. . ,. leaders must stay in close touch and in tune with those they lead. (381) .. . the most important principle of proactive leadership
You go to the front not to issue instructions, but to gain insight and perspective. That cannot be delegated. The best leaders know that. ... to do our job right required personal interaction, not insulated management of an in box and a telephone from the rear. (382) It's my strong belief that in-depth insight into all organizational elements is the foundation for nonintrusive management. It's when leaders do not understand the challengesand the real problems and issues-that they intrude with direction that adds to the problem rather than to the solution. Involvement, immersion, interaction-call it what you will. American management doesn't do enough of it. (384) I knew the more I became a slave to my desk and in box the less well I would do my job. (385) Any bureaucratic entity of forty or more people can stay busy ten hours a day, six days a week, with no inputs and no outputs. (386) ... work is generated to fill the time and number of people available to do it, without any obvious connection to real-world needs. (387) . . . it's a very good idea to start worrying about leadership. What people feel is important. That provides motivation. What people know is important. That provides competence. More than anvthing, you need leaders and leadership, not some pale substitute for both. (388) No matter how you slice it, a team without a leader is a committee. And a team without a leader, a plan, and specific goals is the lost patrol. It is important to keep in mind the three basic management questions: What's the plan? Who's in charge? Compared to what? (389) The Japanese populate their companies with leaders. . . .I'm speaking of the enlightened, caring leadership that is based on full recognition of the profound difference between ordering people and persuading them to make good things happen in an organization. You can order compliance, but you can't order initiative, enthusiasm, and creativity. The power of resistance can always overcome the power of direction. That's what leads to creative incompetence as an art form practiced the world over by those who are not motivated and committed. In fact, you can count on it from the alienated. It's the worst kind of incompetence of all because it is the purest form of squandered potential. (390) . . . it's the caliber of the leadership that sorts out the winners from the losers. Every organization has leadership at work, whether it's called that or not. (391) 15 Mike Loh: One of the mostdominantcharacteristicsalcader must portray in these times is a sense of vision. A vision of where he or she wants that organization to go and what that organization should be thought of. A g<
x)d leader sets goals, measures progres.s and rewards performance. He or she tries to give everyone a stake in the mission of the organization and its outcome. That's the role of leadership. (393) The reason most TQM programs are lloundering is that TQM is being treated as another management initiative and not as a pervasive change in the leadership style. (394) A wag once said, "It isn't ignorance that causes the problems in the world, it's what people know beyond a shadow of a doubt that just isn't so." (395) An organization not only has a head
it also has a heart. And the size of the heart depends upon the size of employee commitment to its ideals and goals. Organizational vitality from the bottom up must be built. And it doesn't happen with halfhearted employee support of where the head wants to go.... commitment must not only be on the list, but at the head of the list. Vince Lombardi: The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor. Mario Andretti: Desire is the key to motivation. It is the commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal that will enable you to attain the success you seek. Abraham Lincoln: Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle. (399) It is very difficultno, virtually impossible-to achieve the loftier goals that globalization demands unless the employees at each level, bottom to top, perceive continuous improvement as a benefit and become committed to the goals that produce it. We know that organizational practices and policies directly affect the attitudes of the employees within that organization-and by extension their level of desire and commitment. ... Employee commitment is a largely neglected realm of American management, and within it lies the key to our competitiveness in a rapidly changing world. (400) ... research shows that "little personal control on the job was the single largest cause of burnout." The workers themselves explain that a principal reason for their lack of enthusiasm for higher productivity is the lack of incentive to work harder. (403) We cannot substantially improve productivity when the preponderance of America's workers simply see no benefit in it to themselves. (405) ... unless the employees perceive that productivity and quality improvements will benefit them, directly and tangibly, you can forget the company's productivity improvement plan. It won't work because it lacli the principal ingredient. I find the single largest source of frustration is that femployeesl would like to make more of a contribution than they do now-if practices were changed so they could. (406) I'm convinced most do indeed want to do a good job. (407) 16 Pay-for-Skill-an incentive for workers to increase their job knowledge and productivity. Earned Time Off--Time off is given as a reward for productivity and quality achievements against specific goals. . . . Evidence shows that earned time off rewards, structured properly, can greatly improve productivity and quality. Thus it can help make money, not cost money, in the long run. (410) A willingness to learn from others is a strength, not a weakness. None of us came into this world with full-blown concepts and conditioning. We all learn from others. But some learn lots and some learn little. A willingness to learn from others, and a readiness to adapt to changing circumstances, help set the best companies apart. (418) Some union chieftains-not all-see a vastly diminished role for themselves in a system of performance-reward links. They also understand that benefits traditionally are tied to wage scales, including the retirement benefits, not to wages plus bonuses. That also provides a strong vested interest in perpetuating the status quo. Simply stated, we need new definitions of winning and losing in management and labor relations. These biases and habits are deeply ingrained, and changing isn't easy. (430) But it's high time both management and the unions assessed where they've been and where they're going or we're in for even rockier days ahead. I don't know about the rest of this fractious and contentious world, but that's where America most needs a peace treaty. (431) People believe in opportunity, not equality. Faith in individual effort and reward remains strong. (434) ... if you treat people fairly and justly they will respond in positive ways.... everyone wants to matter. And policies that in effect tell people they don't matter are a big turnoff. ... Conversely, those that make people believe they do matter inspire loyalty and commitment in return. . . . psychic pay greatly outweighs monetary pay. (435) . . . employees want responsibility whether it comes with a promotion or not. Company leaders need to pay lots of attention to the satisfaction index. (436) We pay a big price when common purpose and commitment become the missing ingredients b^ause of shortsighted management policies and practices. ... the work ethic is suffering in America because managers pay too little attention to the worth ethic. (437) Vince Lombardi... was fond of saying there are three key elements to winning in any human endeavor-be it sports, business, or life. The first is talent. The second is discipline. And the third, Lombardi said, is "You ha\'e to care for each other." And that spirit must come from the top. (438) Winston Churchill
"Man often stumbles across the truth, but then gets up and hurries on as if nothing had happened." (441) Rosabeth Kanter
"Powerlessness corrupts. Absolute powerlessness corrupts absolutely." (450) 17Everything I've experienced, and everything I've seen in the best companies, convinces me that success depends on the effectiveness of the management system by which a business operates-including the structure and style that shape its operations. (452) So how do businesses make real improvements in quality and productivity? It requires system changes, and that requires people who are determined to make a change. Obviously it's best if the leader at the very top of the organization sees the need for a holistic TQM approach and leads the charge. But it can also happen from within, starting in one part of the organization. From small acorns grow mighty oaks. Therefore, you can make a difference. You can be a principal catalyst for changewhatever your particular level might be. (4S3) A lot of the barrier to change is in the mindset.... My point is, a lot of the barriers to change are to be found in the minds of those who could carry it out, if only they would. No guts, no change. No guts, no glory. (454) . .. we used an evolutionary' method to bring about revolutionary change... creating models, conditioning people to change, winning converts as we went. . . . it's important to have a clear vision of where you're going--and to share it with everyone in the organization. It need not be a written, step-by-step plan, but the direction and ultimate reorganization goals should be well understood by all. Then you need to get all the employees involved in crafting as well as implementing the new organizational vision. (455) ... no matter how skillfully and humanistically you go about it you can expect some opposition-even a few hard-core pockets of it-as a few protect their turf and the status quo ante with which they are comfortable. You should use logic, example, and persuasion first, and to every possible extent. (You'll find that peer pressure from the majority who like the new approach will help in that regard.) Challenge individuals who are impervious to all that to get all the way in or all the way out. ... organizational transformations must be led, not driven. And companies must go about implementing decentralization in a decentralized way. Relentless pursuit of perfection can begin right away-but can be fine tuned as you settle into the new system. (456) i Once system change is started properly it takes on a momentum of its own. (457) There are not a lot of hard-and-fast rules on how to form the teams. But there are four general rules to keep in mind. First, we're talking about permanent organizational structure, not ad hoc team overlays. Second, the teams should be designed to exercise ownership over a specific product, and each team given adequate authority to carry our that charter. Third, each team should have a leader as the focal point of responsibility. (And the leadership style should create leadership involvement by every single team member.) Fourth, the teams should be small. That's to give content and meaning to the team product and to the relationships, interpersonal and organizational. How big should teams be? Depends on the industry, the company, and the product. In general, they should be kept as small as possibleas few as three or four and as many as fifteen, but no more. i The charter must be defined and the outputs measurable. (458) 18 The Combined Actions That Make Teams Successful T rust them E mpower them A im them M easure them S upport them Above all recognize After training them With wide latitude With objectives and goals For feedback and comparison With backing and resources and reward them to provide a stake in the outcome. (459) I Employees recognize when they are distrusted-and they resent it, as well they should. Moreover, they simply won't accept responsibility (or accountability) without adequate authority to carry it out-nor should they. (460) Therefore, a principal advantage of the team-based approach is that it allows managers to build trust and respect into the system, while also providing for accountability at every level. (460) The key to harmony and efficiency is the smooth integration of the various specialties, at a meaningful team level, and with clear-cut goals. Cooperation stems from giving people reasons and incentives to look at their endeavors in a team context. The functional approach just does not produce the same spirit or perspective. Teams do. They do, that is, if they are installed throughout~as the organizational building blocks. Pseudo-teams don't. Quasi-teams don't. Ad hoc committees (called teams) don't. And cross-functional teams make marginal not primary contributions. (464) Why so little measurement and feedback to be found in American businesses?... It certainly is not because the tools aren't available. And that bias against measurement doesn't benefit the frontline employees, it penalizes them. (465) There's room for quality and productivity improvement in every organization-embedded in all sorts of untapped potential. (467) Adequate factual infonnation is the lifeblood of intelligent decision-making. (469) Measurement of Specific Goals Provides These Important Results I I Focus Objectivity Recognition Improvement Motivation Decentralization Commitment On what is important From the comparisons Of what/where to fix Of the right things To improve the score With cohesion/control From this empowerment and reward process J Each result is important to TQM, and you simply won't get them without means to measure, compare, analyze, and feedback to those doing the work. Also, managers must be given means to track performancefor visibility, coherence, and "control"-or they won't even consider empowerment. (472) I The leaders of decentralized organizations realize that when you decentralize you also need means of keeping track. Why? Because they know ) ou can bet your boots it will all get better-bul that it won't get better, and stay better, in all places all the time. Thus, you need means to provide detailed, comparative insight so that you can spot problems and trends in their formative stages. I would add these convictions
When performance is measured, it improves. When performance is measured and compared, it improves further. When 19 performance is measure, compared, and appropriately recognized and rewarded, it improves even more-dramatically more. (473) . I have found that employees will welcome measurement, even champion it, when it works to their benefit and not to their detriment. They even quickly grow to prize it if it's designed and structured as their system, and is used primarily for self-improvement, recognition, and reward. Moreover, if being measured is the price exacted for giving them a level of involvement and ownership they never had before, they can understand that. (474) But achieving quality involves a great deal more than the tools you use. It involves finding out what the customers need, how to design goods and services to respond to those needs, and how to produce them using the proper technology. (477) Experience shows if the top leader will break that mold, the entire organization will swing into step, and will do so with increasing vigor and enthusiasm. (491) Deming Cycle
Plan-Do-Check-Act. By any name it's a useful tool in creating continuing process-product improvement. (521) Epilogue 1. Build your TQM approach, and its principles, on five system pillars
ProductProcess -Organization-Leadership-Commitment. Product is the focal point for organization purpose and achievement. Quality in the product is impossible without quality in the process. Quality in the process is impossible without the right organization. The right organization is meaningless without the proper leadership. Strong, bottom-up commitment is the support pillar for all the rest. Each pillar depends upon the other four, and if one is weak all are. 2. Firmly establish the character and culture of your organization. Develop the overarching principles. Key them to the human spirit. Ensure they are wholly understood and widely practiced-by all. Give them vigor through insistence, persistence, and consistency. Stress ethical conduct, integrity, and courtesy in all endeavors. The principles flow top down but their power must flow bottom up. 3. Use a decentralized, interactive system that integrates all levels. Organize for the new realities. Centralism is a bankrupt approach. Build a decentralized structure on the teams-outputs-product model Replace the I and My mindset usually found with that of WE and OUR. Foster belief in the rich rewards of teamw'ork, and professionalism. Build strong commitment by all to highest quality and productivity. 4. Organization is the central pillarit influences everything else. Create widespread ownership. Decentralize the authority throughout. Combine authority and accountability. Make that unambiguous to all. Eliminate unnecessary layers. Tear down all of the functional walls. Recast the rules. Streamline the paperwork. Shorten the cycle times. Maintain coherence and control with incentive, not author!tananism. 5. Base the structural building blocks on small teams not big functions. Organize by teams for involvement, agility, and an ownership focus. Keep each team at a manageable size. Provide each its own identity. Every team has a product. Identify it. Dignity it. Celebrate it. Form teams of teams. Clearly identify the interfaces between teams. Provide each team ample authority over iLs own part of the product. 206. Onent employee focu.s and activity to their product, not their job. One's job is self-centered. Build a group-centered product mindset. Define each product in terms of its customer, internal or external. Identify each product sub-element. Identify all involved processes. Create process improvement by measurement, analysis, and incentive. Use the product as the focal point, and rallying point for quality. 7. Place the prime leadership focus on the outputs, not the inputs. Inhibit micromanagement of the inputs. Champion output ownership. Develop output goals iteratively with the teams directly involved. Make the goals understandable, relevant, attainable-and wanted. Provide ample incentive for initiative, ingenuity, and innovation. Create strong desire for continuous improvement in every activity. 8. Keep score, assess, and provide timely feedback to one and all. Measure quality and productivity at varied product/process points. Use quantification benchmarks to judge your progress-and needs. Amplify objectivity through broad use of data, facts, and surveys. Use comparison to bring life to the data and to provide relevance. Use goals and scoreboarding to decentralize and create ownership. 9. Know your marketplace inside out and create strong customer linkage. Continually assess your strength and competitiveness in your niche. Be sure your expertise is suitably matched to each of the products. Pay close attention to the business of your business. Stick to it. Create a product-customer linkage. Assure everyone understands it. Ensure that every decision, every action, is keyed to the customer. 10. Provide a climate of quality which promotes pride and professionalism. Mobilize dedication to highest quality in all things, at all times. Pride is the fuel of human accomplishment. Create it. Sustain it. Make continuous renewal and rejuvenation everyone's responsibility. Calibrate your revisions on the level of motivation and enthusiasm. Quality begets quality. Provide the means, tools, and motivation. 11. Base any and all decisions on the inseparability of cost and value. Get every organizational level involved-from the very bottom up. Provide cost data to teams. Instill value consciousness throughout. Be wary of cuts that affect the quality mindset. Don't disable it. The line cuts the costs not the staff, to ensure value sensitivity. Use quality to drive costs down, not savings to drive quality down. 12. Provide detailed, focused training to employees at every level. On-the-job and ad hoc training are key parts, but are only parts. Formal training is vital for proper quality mindset and know-how. Make all training specific on key principles, methods, and goals. Train all employees at every levelincluding at senior levels. Leaders at all levels must be teachers. Leaders create leaders. 13. Give high priority and pay great attention to the communication flow. On key issues augment the hierarchical flow. Go several layers deep. Talk numbers as well as words. Ensure full comprehension throughout. Replace all inhibitions to upward communication with full openness. Provide the requisite means and adequate incentives to make it work. Listening, hearing, and caring are the catalysts which make it thrive. 14. Work unceasingly to instill common purpose from the bottom to the top. Close the classic management and labor gap. Make leadership seamless. Assure the common purpose is keyed to the product, and the customer. Get all of the employees enthused, and fully involved to support it. Stay in touch and in tune with all of the employees all of the time. Instill in all that commitment from all determines success for each. 21 15. Build the commitment through genuine ownership, and shared success. Emphasize the dignity and the worth of each job and every employee. Make wide use of recognition and reward, for individuals and teams. Make involvement real. Provide the opportunity and the incentives. Make ownership real. The test is if they feel it--and apply it. Provide a clear stake in the outcome for everyone. Share success. 16. Above all, build your total quality management on all five pillars. It's not complicated or mysterious. It need not all be done at once. But it requires actionsnot just words. A slogan is not a system. The system isn't difficult to implement. Start with these principles. The very best companies, worldwide, use them to beat the competition. All who use them reap far greater quality, productivity, and success. A holistic TQM system is a proven answer to the new realities of the 9O's. It will hugely benefit any organization whatever its size or its business. 11 LITTLE ROCK SCHOOL DISTRICT INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCE CENTER 3001 PULASKI STREET LITTLE ROCK, AR 72206 September 8, 1998 To: Dr. Les Carnine Dr. Kathy Lease Dr. Vic Anderson Dr. Richard Hurley Brady Gadberry Marian Lacey Sadie Mitchell Mark Milhollen Suellen Vann Junious Babbs Dr. Linda Watson Frances Cawthon FROM: SUBJCT: Dr. Bonnie Lesley .'Associate Superintendent for Instruction School Restructuring and TQM In 1992 I wrote the attached article for a Texas ASCD publication. You may find it interesting as we begin to think about the implementation of the Campus Leadership Plan. BAL/adg DOTHEY HEAR WHAT WE SAY? UNDERSTANDING SCHOOL RESTRUCTURING INITIATIVES by Bonnie A. Lesley, Ed. D. Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum Support Services Austin Independent School District Even though educations critics are dismayed at the slow pace of change in schools, we are, in fact, changing at least as rapidly as business organizations as a whole. After all, W. Edwards Deming began teaching the principles of total quality management (TQM) to the Japanese forty years before the first American corporation. Ford Motor Company, invited him to assist in their restructuring in the early 1980s. A decade later-a half century now-most American businesses maintain their old management methods even as their CEOs espouse the need to create new working environments and processes for knowledge workers and even as they continue to lose market share and profits to foreign corporations. Indeed, one of the barriers that schools confront in restructuring is the lingering support for th^ sort and select factory -model school among every communitys power elite. We hear the demand that we change. However, in too many cases, when we start implementing quality principles, we hear even louder, but not that way! Not if it affects my kid! What school leaders need even more than Adopt-A-School programs in this era is for business leaders to help us educate the community-their employees-on the urgency for the transformation of schools, on the understanding that there will be no excellence (quality) without equity, and on the reality that schools, just as businesses, must become more productive or die. Perhaps one reason that the business community is generally so critical of us-and one reason for our acceptance of that criticism-is that neither they nor we have understood that total quality management principles are embedded in every successful school restructuring initiative. Whether the embedding was conscious or intuitive does not matter. What matters is that we in education do the right things and do them right, just as it matters that business do the right things and do them right. As early as the 197O's, when Ron Edmonds first began conducting research on Effective Schools, he was seeking to identify the practices that enabled some schools to be more successful (productive) than others with similar kinds of students. If we look carefully at his identified correlates (and their continuing refinement by Lawrence Lezotte) and then juxtapose them beside Demings 14 principles, we see similarities immediately. Edmonds and Lezotte write about the importance of an instructional focus, collaborative processes, frequent and ongoing monitoring of student progress, effective teaching strategies, instructional leadership, a school climate conducive to teaching and learning, collegiality, high expectations, professional development at the school site, and the involvement of everyone in achieving the school mission. Anyone with a deep understanding of Effective Schools research hears the echoes of Demings exhortations for constancy of purpose, adopting the new philosophy, ending mass inspection, continuous improvement of processes, leadership, eliminating fear, breaking down barriers between staff areas, eliminating slogans and ratings, vigorous programs for organizational development and self-improvement, and putting everyone to work to achieve quality. But we have to know both the TQM principles and the Effective Schools literature to see that they are the same. What happens is that businesspeople lament our ignorance about systems and quality 1 management, and they encourage us to define our customers, engage in processes for continuous improvement, benchmark, and use statistical tools to measure progress toward achieving zero defects. The business worlds vocabulary is foreign to us. It sounds too scientific, too cold for the very complex environment of a classroom of 30 very diverse children with one teacher who must somehow assure their mastery of the curriculum-or at least some of it-when there are so many variables over which she (or he) has little or no control. So the businessperson does not understand that we are attempting to restructure according to quality principles, and we do not understand either. The reality is that all of the major restructuring initiatives are remarkably similar. All involve systemic changes in the guiding theories or beliefs or values, all include the importance of empowerment of teachers through collaborative processes, and the success of all is dependent upon the creation of a true community of learners. Otherwise, as John Champlin says, school-based management may result in a lot of people sitting around sharing ignorance. For instance, Henry Levins Accelerated Schools model focuses on necessary changes in the schools curriculum, instruction, and organization. He emphasizes the importance of unity of purpose, empowerment with responsibility, and building on strengths. The inquiry and planning processes that he teaches reflect his belief in the importance of taking stock or examining data on an ongoing basis and on study, research, piloting, and evaluating. William Glassers Quality Schools are, of course, grounded in his theory regarding the importance of self-responsibility and on the growing imperative that schools be as needs-satisfying as possible since increasing percentages of children do not have their needs met anywhere else. Therefore, he, like Deming, urges us to talk about quality at every opportunity, eliminate fear and coercion, and move toward self-assessment. His theory of lead-management is the collaborative, yet accountable, decision-making that we see in Levins model. We know that both Levin and Glasser are very much familiar with Demings work. The League of Professional Schools, led by Carl Glickman, is a fourth restructuring model that also emphasizes quality principles. Before a school can join the League, the faculty and staff must define its covenant-a statement of beliefs about teaching and learning developed collaboratively and by consensus. The covenant is their constancy of purpose or unity of purpose or grounding theoretical base. They must also write a charter-again collaboratively developed by consensus-that defines their decision-making processes. And, finally, they must commit themselves to critical study. The action research advocated by Glickman equates to Demings insistence on continuous improvement rather than mass inspection at the end of the process, to Edmonds correlate on measurement, to Levins taking stock, and to Glassers self-assessment for quality. A fifth important initiative is Theodore Sizers Coalition of Essential Schools. One of his premises is that the central purpose of schooling is for students to learn to use their minds well. His model focuses on the school level and assumes that the principal and teachers will make decisions and share leadership responsibilities. The Essential Schools staffs participate in continuous, long-term professional development during both the school year and the summer. James Comers developmental model is yet another \'ariation of the quality theme. The purpose of the school, according to Comer, is to facilitate the childrens cognitive development and the learning of social skills. His collaborative school includes everyone on the staff, parents, and university and/or mental health professionals. Ending the isolation of teachers and forming bonds between university scholars and teachers to create a unity of theory and practice are the goals of his continuous learning program. A seventh approach, more that 20 years old now, is the Outcomes-Driven Developmental Model designed by John Champlin and his colleagues in Johnson City, New York. Champlin knew Glassers work, and he used mastery learning strategies to assure that high expectations became a realitythe purpose. Involvement and collaboration were introduced to create and maintain a healthy organization. And major investments were made from the beginning in training so that the staff would also be empowered by knowledge. Phillip Schlechty has proposed our eighth model, Twenty-First Century Schools. Constancy of purpose for him is values and commitments, and, he says, a major responsibility of leadership is to conceptualize, articulate, and communicate that purpose. Like Deming, he understands that mere involvement or participation by staff is not an end. It is a means by which quicker responses can be made to student needs, and it is the decision-making strategy most likely to produce quality results. Schlechty points out the irony of there being so few schools that organize to develop their staffs for continuous improvement. Ongoing support and training, he says, are an absolute prerequisite for successful change. All eight restructuring models continue to be refined and elaborated upon as our experience with them and the research grows. And the more we learn about how to move toward quality in education, the more our paths may converge with business practices. For instance, Ernst and Young published in 1992 a Best lYactices Report. It identifies conelates, if you will, of quality practices that work best for low-performing companies, for medium-performing companies, and for high-performing companies. Those practices that seem most appropriate for low-and mediumperforming organizations resemble to a high degree the practices-especially the emphasis on training for professional and organizational development- advocated by many reformers. The study also makes clear that benchmarking and abrupt decentralization are only effective in high- performing organizations. (Yet Texas mandates site-based decision-making all at one time for all.) Schlechty recognizes that one of the chief tasks of leaders in a knowledge society is to teach. Our task, then, in not only to teach childrenand their parentsand patrons who are not parentsbut businesspeople as well. We will gain their support and respect if we can help them see how educations leaders have translated the quality management principles for our unique environment. We must also help them-and each othersee that it does not matter whether we subscribe to Edmond and Lezottes Effective Schools, Levins Accelerated Schools, Glassers Quality Schools, Glickmans Professional Schools, Sizers Essential Schools, Comers Developmental Schools, Champlins Outcomes-Driven Schools, or Schlechtys Twenty-First Century Schools. They are all quality models with slight variations, just as business has varying TQM training models. Our pace does appear to be slow. Howex er, five years ago few of us had even heard of TQM or quality schools or accelerated schools. Five years ago, few of us talked about exit outcomes or authentic assessment or interdisciplinary curriculum or brain-based instruction or multiple intelligences. In fact, few of us ever spoke of site-based management or restructuring or flattened hierarchies or customers or empowerment or accountability or capacity-building in the context of schools. We have come a long way quickly. These promising concepts must now be taught to all educators, and we must devote the resources to assure that parents and business people also learn something about them. And somehow we must teach school board members that w'e will never have constancy of purpose unless superintendents can survive much longer than two years in a district and unless decision-making focuses on children, not the politics of adults special interests. We must also teach legislators about quality in education and insist that they stop mandating practices that violate quality management principles and best knowledge about teaching and learning. 3BIBLIOGRAPHY SCHOOL RESTRUCTURING INITIATIVES Accelerating remediation (Jan. 1991). Achieve! An Update on Student Retention Issues. Austin: Texas Research League. Bonstingl, John Jay (1992). Schools of quality: An introduction to Total Quality Management in education. Alexandria, VA
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Champlin, John (1992). Four phases in creating and managing an outcome-based program. Successful schooling for all. Lee Gray and Glenn Hymel, eds. Roseville, MN
' Network for Outcome-Based Schools. Comer, James (1980). School power: Implications of an intervention project. New York: The Free Press. Conley, David (Feb. 1991). Restructuring schools: Educators adapt to a changing world. Eugene, OR: ERIC Clearinghouse on Educational Management Cushman, Kathleen (Nov. 1992). What works, what doesnt: Lessons from Essential School reform. Horace. 9: 1-8. Deming. W. Edwards (1986). Out of the crisis. Boston, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Edmonds, Ron (1979). A discussion of the literature and issues related to effective schooling. ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 170 394. Edmonds, Ron (Oct. 1982). Programs of school improvement: An overview. Educational Leaders^p. 40: 4-11. Ernst and Young (1992). Best practices report: An analysis of management practices that impact performance. Cleveland, OH: American Quality Foundation. Glasser, William (1984). Control theory: A new explanation of how we control our lives. New York
Harper and Row. Glasser, William (1992). The quality school: Managing students without coercion. New York: Harper Perennial. Glickman, Carl (April 1990). Open accountability for the90s
Between the pillars. Educational Leadership. 38-42. Glickman, Carl (May 1991). Pretending not to know what we know. Educational Leadership. 4-9. Glickman, Carl (Sept. 1990). Pushing school reform to a new edge
The seven ironies of school empowerment. Phi Delta Kappan. 68-75. Glickman, Carl and Lew Allen, eds. (1991). Lessons from the field: Renewing schools through shared governance and action research. Athens, GA: University of Georgia. 5 Guskey, Thomas (Feb. 1990). Integrating innovations. Edueational Leadership. 11-15. Levin, Henry (Winter 1993). Accelerated visions. Accelerated Schools. 2: 2-3. Levin, Henry (Sept. 1991). Building school capacity for effective teacher empowerment. New Brunswick, NJ: Consortium for Policy Research in Education. Levine, Daniel and Lawrence Lezotte (Mar. 1990). Unusually effective schools. Madison, WI: National Center for Effective Schools Research and Development. Lezotte, Lawrence (Jan./Feb. 1993). Creating effective schools today and tomorrow. The Journal for Quality and Participation. 16: 22-30. Lezotte, Lawrence and Barbara Jacoby (1990). A guide to the school improvement process based on Effective Schools research. Okemos, MI: Effective Schools Products, Ltd. Munsey, Donna and Patrick McQuillan (Feb. 1993). Preliminary findings from a five-year study of the Coalition of Essential Schools. Phi Delta Kappan. 486-489. Neuroth, Joann (1992). TQM handbook: Applying the Baldrige criteria to schools. Arlington, VA: American Association of School Administrators. Schlechty, Phillip (1990). Schools for the 21st century. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass FAiblishers. Sizer, Theodore (Nov. 1989). The Coalition of Essential Schools-A partnership formula for reform. Partnerships in Education Journal. 8-9. Sizer, Theodore (1990). The common principles of the Cocilition of Essential Schools. Providence, RI: Coalition of Essentid Schools. Tri bus, Myron (Jan./Feb. 1993). Quality management in education. The Journal for Quality and Participation. 16: 12-21. Walton. Marv (1986). The Deming management method. New York: The Putnam Publishing Company. 6 12 igOUlSi The LRSD Master Plan Components 1. Revised Desegregation and Education Plan 2. Strategic Plan , 3. Campus Leadership Plan 4 4. NSF Project 5. Title I 6. Smart Start 7. CCOE I I IThe ^^StufP They Have in Common 1. Standards (with emphasis on reading and mathematics) 2. Assessment I I I a 3. Professional development (instructional strategies etc.) 4. Accountability for results I I IK: i I I What Matters Most in Improving Achievement (Restructuring Variables that Work) 1. Caring, positive, safe, orderly, nurturing, risk- free, personalized, culturally sensitive learning environments (classroom and school-wide) 2. High expectations for success--both academics and behavior standards/benchmarks 3. Diverse, enhanced, and personalized instruction and assessment 4. Professional learning community for adults (including site-based, data-driven decision making site-based professional development, action research data analysis, AND collective responsibility for results. 9JiPTS'W.T*a::W?j rwr^ .t sisaBumREBReaasxaB!' Implications for Our Work 1. Elementary Leyel * ONE elementary language arts and ONE mathematics program that include the standards assessment, professional development, and 9 accountability expectations of LRSD, Title I, Smart Start, and NSF (math only). I I IJE. >- BEaa!s53srTOr'H(| I WM COMING SOON (Youll be involved): Hi * * * He * Hi K-5 Standards and Benchmarks by grade level Restructured K-3 and 4-5 curriculum plan Restructured Title I program I Professional development options--? days LRSD assessments to measure progress < I Adoption of an instructional framework New quality indicators of school successI I I 2. Middle Level * Middle school program standards LRSD standards and benchmarks by course, 6-8 * New curriculum aligned with AR Frameworks: Reading and Writing Workshop, 6-8 Research and Writing Pre-AP, 6-8 Mathematics 6 Science 6 Career Orientation, 7 Arkansas History 7 Social Studies 8 Physical Education and Health 6 Expressions! Write On! 7-8 6-8 III I'll I.mill................. I IIlli II. jiiiii i| I ___I. * I New Pre-AP courses in core * LRSD assessments to measure progress * Professional development options for 7 days * Title I at grade 6 s * Adoption of an instructional framework * New quality indicators of school success I I I IB -aas?. kwaaNll !iRC2rns55wxspw?TrnCT?OTSJraD 3. High School Level * New curriculum standards and benchmarks by course * New courses , Physics I, gr^de 9 Several new electives * New emphasis on increasing numbers of students in Pre-AP and AP levels I I * New graduation requirements and new recommended curriculum Professional development options for 7 daysL.L -5? MsMM * Adoption of instructional frameworkvery important to support new block scheduling in high schools * New end-of-level assessments * New quality indicators of school success 13 LL LITTLE ROCK SCHOOL DISTRICT INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCE CENTER 3001 PULASKI STREET LITTLE ROCK, AR 72206 (501) 324-2131 August 17, 1999 TO: Everyone FROM: Dr. Bonnie LesleSy,b Associate Superintendent, for Instruction SUBJECT: Good Teachers As the children come for a new school year, it is good to remember how very important good teachers are in their lives! Our jobs as administrators are, first, to select the very best ones available. Then we must support their work and both encourage and facilitate their growth and development. I am attaching an essay from Education Week about What Makes a Good Teacher?" that I think you all will enjoy. I am also attaching a summary of critically important research on How Children Learn. We have paid the fee to reproduce this information, so feel free to make copies for your teachers. We will be using this same research as we develop delivery standards and an instructional framework for the District. Attachments BAL/rcm j i Commentary 34 education WEEK JANUARY 20,1999 dividual who MW P.rfel.r What Makes A Good Teacher? the classroom. It was the in an extracurricular ac- level of performance that surprised and delighted th ^"STthird attribute, distinctive character, is the most the tmro ai.i.iiuuv<=, tn the other elusive one, and it gives flavor or t----------- texture to the other This Historian Found 3 Answers-Over and Over Again two. (It is likely 11/ HIV co WUw* ------- , . the attribute that contributes most to memorable teacher.) In al- By Richard P. Traina level of education, there / jec^t What constitutes good teaching. Some years ago, I embarked on an interest- i bU of resetdi in pursuit of an to ^tllt query. As a historian I deeded e^lore *e autobiographies of P-tTf. ^Thlse lQth and 20th centimes (some 120 oi me > iytn anu __ e enpial. econoinic, tevery question
matter being taught. students pil"che"^ damental. Where there was ease on the part of the teacher moving around the subject, a dexterity of explanation matter, such that students 1 o ernnd teacher also a memorable teacner.j ui ai- SgSBSSS tragedy overcome, an unabashed passion r subiect ot a way of demonstrating concern for the student (although throwing chalk at^orhugpng a a student are both out- of different social, economic. __mpn and women of dinerent social, , and explication, students could feel the teachers command of the material. That confi- . There was a palpable energy that suffused the competent and caring side of the communication lexicon these days). In any event, there was a palpable energy that suffused the competent and car reteachers whom they valued? dence was a root cause of a students respect for the teacher, opening the teacher, some mark-making quality. teacher. ing teacher, some mark-making quality. I cannot emphasize enough how powerful this combination of attributes was reported autobiographers believed that their hves were changed by such Sachers and professors. K should m to be. The good teacher. I guess memorable teacher. There were I would have to say { three characteristics that were the world differently. in the subject matter,_car^ deeply j^bout student^ deeply ---- These attributes were evi- 'gr^^eS^T^T^el of education or the subject caring character. __________ RichardPdiy^in^dl^^ University in Worcester, Mass. characteristic seemed equally deeply about each student and about that stu- acTomphshment and growth. In this iMtance it . .. ., I recognizing the student as an in The second caring deeply about dents began with the teacher recojHow Children Learn: What Cognitive Research Tells Us About Effective Instruction Each day, professional fields as diverse as medical science, psychology, and education contribute more to the body of knowledge about how the human brain works. From Piagets research on developmental psychology, to Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences, to the use of MRI and PET scans to examine physical brain activity, our knowledge of human cognition is always expanding. Recently, brain-based learning has become the focus of much attentionand some skepticismin the education profession. This overview of what we know about how children learn does not deal vtith the more controversial claims of brain research
rather, it focusses on how this latest wave of research contributes to the growing body of useful knowledge about human learning and effective instruction. issue ofThe Informed Educator describes the key understandings that have come out of the cognitive research and explores how educators can use these findings to guide curriculum and instruction. Key Findings of the Research on Human Learning In the last few decades, research on human learning has produced a wealth of new information. Many of the conclusions of this research are inconsistent, but that is the nature of our evolving understanding of human learning. When the cognitive researchers take the additional step of applying their findings to make suggestions for practice and instructional strategies, the resource for educators is even richer. However, these strategies should not be viewed as prescriptive
rather, the entire body of research is a tool to help develop awareness about the complexities of the teaching and learning process. When we look at the many theories that have come out of the cognitive research, what can we say we really know about the way people learn? The following sections highlight some of the key understandings that have gained wide acceptance, and discuss how educators can use these findings to inform teaching and learning. ** The brain searches for meaning. Whatever else we are as human beings, we have an innate desire for meaning, says Parnell (1996, so). Learners of all ages discover meaning by making connections. Recent cognitive research tells us that the need for developing connections is rooted in the basic functioning of the brain itself. An individual brain cell may be connected to 10,000 or more other brain cells. In simphfied terms, each brain cell receives messages from other cells and decides to pass each message along depending on the amount of electrical charge behind the message. When it finds little or no connection, the message may be 2000 Clarendon Boulevard, Arlington, Virginia 22201 Phone: (703) 243-2100 Fax: (703) 243-5V7I www.ers.org Copyright 1998, Educational Research Service. Reproduced with permission. & discarded. Every time a person experiencesj some- thing that connects with a previous experience, that experience tends to stick, and something is learned (Parnell 1996). In the classroom, this means that teachers should
Build curricula around what students already know. If facts are presented as part of a larger picture and associated with past learning, the brain Provide a great deal of input, allowing the learner to construct patterns. Della Neve, Hart, and Thomas cite sparks as one way to increase input. Sparks are presentations by staff members, people from the community, or students on virtually any topic that is real and of interest (from collecting seashells, to repairing shoes, to making bread). is more likely to remember them (Bruer 1997). Encourage students to talk about material in an 1 if I i j .V I 1 i I Create meaning by linking information to real- life experience. IVhen possible, connect information to other personal associations (Jensen 1996). Give students choices about what they learn so that they can choose what is most relevant to them. Use meaning-making activities such as journal writing. For example, at the end of each lesson, students may write down what they learned, how the learning relates to what they already know, and how they can use this information in the fii- ture (Sousa 1998). Embed learning activities in actual productive uses. For instance, students may use their language abilities by making signs for an event or by reading in preparation for a visit by an author. Use stories, complex themes, and metaphors to link information and understanding. Create interdisciplinary curricula, or find times when it is possible to address one topic across disciplines. The brain resists assimilating isolated bits of information
it prefers to integrate information by recognizing and incorporating patterns. Meaning is also created by identifying patterns. The brain resists assimilating isolated bits of information
it prefers to integrate information by recognizing and incorporating patterns (Caine and Caine 1995
Della Neve, Hart, and Thomas 1986). What can teachers do in the classroom to take advantage of the brains preference for patterns? unstructured way, discovering on their own how each piece of the puzzle fits into something larger (Jensen 1996). 5* The brain is a complex system. The brain is a system of thoughts, emotions, imagination, and physiology that constantly exchanges information with its environment. As a parallel the brain is able to perform many functions processor, the brain is aoie ro pawuu simultaneously (Caine and Caine 1994). Research by neurologist Harold Chugani explains that a myriad of brain activities are possible because of connectiotis between trillions of neurons, representing potent! pathways that an electrical impulse may travel. mation broken up into small chunks, with supplied answers at every turn, does not take advantage o pathways that an such complexity (Nadis 1993). What are the implica- tions for teaching and learning? Schools should. Immerse students in complex experience. Rich sensory materialssuch as music, field trips. books, and reproductions of fine artentice comi iplex thinking (National Education tion 1997). -2- Associa- Avoid imposing artificial time limits on karning. Schedules should reflect the actual time it takes a student to complete a task, while maintaining sense of coherence (Caine and Caine 1995). a Allow learning to follow its own course. Recog nize that the brain does not always take bgicd steps down one path, but can go down a hundred paths simultaneously. With varied experiences, students make connections and extract patterns, absorbing and retaining a great deal incidentally (Della Neve, Hart, and Thomas 1986). There are many ways to be intelligent. Intelligence is multifaceted, defjdng measurement on an IQ_test. Howard Gardner originally identified seven basic types of intelligencelinguistic, musical, logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic,taucaiionai Kesearcri service interpersonal, and intrapersonal^but he and other researchers acknowledge that there are more (Black 1994).This understanding suggests that teachers should: Bring different kinds of intelligence to traditional subjects. Whether teachers link music to math or visual art to biology, the key is to tap into the many ways students learn. Promote self-directed learning, in which students ask researchable questions
identify varied resources
and initiate, implement, and bring closure to a learning activity. Regardless of the focusstudying the nesting habits of local birds or I F -these projects draw on solving a mock crimi numerous intelligences (Campbell 1997). Teach students about the theory of multiple intelligences, and then ask them to think about which intelligences they use during different activities (Greenhawk 1997), Provide choices so that students can pursue individual interests using individual strengths. Allow aU students to express visual, tactile, emotional, and auditory learning preferences in response to multifaceted teaching. f [ ** Learning is an emotional activity. Emotions often serve as a link for retrieving information and enhancing long-term memory. If we recall an event from years ago, most often there is some emotion attached to it (McClanahan 1998). Research indicates that adrenaline, a hormone released by the adrenal gland when emotions are aroused, activates the amygdala, which then sends a message to the rest of the brain: This information is important. Remember it!" (Paulus 1997,11). The amygdala can also be activated by harsh criticism, sending messages of threat to the rest of the brain
the resulting release of chemicals causes the body to fight, flee, or freeze (Jensen 1998). In general, how a person feels in a learning situation determines the amount of attention he or she devotes to it. Students need to have an emotional connection to their work, their peers, and their teachers (Sousa 1998). How can educators use this knowledge to improve instruction? They can: Create a comfortable, nonthreatening climate. Anything that students might interpret as punitive, critical, or threatening may adversely affect learning (Della Neve, Hart, and Thomas 1986). Engage students personally through the use of journals, discussion, sharing, and reflection. If there is a significant current event that may have personal meaning for the students, ask them to talk or write about it. Use theater and dramaideal forums to engage the emotions. In general, how a person feels in a learning situation determines the amount of attention he or she devotes to it. V Learning is a social activity. Learning is heavily influenced by the interaction of the individual with the larger social environment. Our minds respond to interaction with others, in part because these situations often engage emotions, as discussed earlier. What are the implications for the classroom? Teachers can: Create a classroom atmosphere in which students interact comfortably and see themselves as part of a learning community. Look for opportunities for students to work in small-group settings. Use peer tutoring. Metacognitive skills enhance learning. Effective learners do more than acquire knowledge of facts and concepts. They have an awareness of how they are learning and use it to monitor their own thought processes and to change their approach to fit the situation or activity (Bruer 1997). Some researchers argue that teaching thinking skills, learning strategies, problem solving, and creativity can make a difference as fundamental as how the brain itself works (Languis 1998,46). Metacognition involves being aware of ones strengths and weaknesses as a learner. What are the implications for teaching? Recognize the importance of teaching students metacognitive strategies. Involve students in discussions of their learning process and problem-solving strategies. By listen- -3- ing to students think out loud, teachers can recognize what specific understanding a student is missing, and then help the student obtain it (Bruer 1997). Thematic, Integrated Curriculum There are many ways to organize learning around themes. Most of them require more teacher common preparation and effort than the tradition , su ject based curriculum. Yet, cognitive research clearly 1 Si Some researchers argue that "teaching thinking skills, learning strategies, problem solving, and creativity can make a difference as fundamental as how the brain itself works. supports the integrative approach. Marlin L Languis, 1998 As Walker writes, While subject-bound education treats students as passive receptacles, requiring them only to feed back fragments of skills and facts given them, integrative education promotes the construction of broad mental programs that require students to use skills and information in new, reahstic contexts (1995,1). Such an approach creates the expectation in students that there are connections to be made
connections with upcoming ideas in the same course, wth other courses, and with out-of- school settings (Perkins 1991). This process takes Early learning is crucial. Brain research indicates that an important window of opportunity for learning occurs in the first few years of life (Seebach 1998
Jensen 1998). For instance, neurologist Harry Chuganis research demonstrates the rapid growth of the auditory cortex, claiming that by the childs first birthday, the auditory cortex is mapped" (Shore 1997). While educators _ such as John Bruer (1997) take issue with some of the theories developed in the field of infant neuroscience, virtually all researchers do agree that this is an impor- tant time in human development. School leaders can take advantage of this knowl- the readiness of
dge by finding ways to help increase t-j - - J X children who enter kindergarten. They can reach out families during the preschool years through alliances with local social service agencies, creating pro- to educate parents about the importance of grams to educate parents aoout uic early learning and what parents can do to give their children the best cognitive start (Shore 1997). "ly learning and what parents Practices Supported by Cognitive Research When one considers the basic principles and understandings discussed above, it is clear that many current instructional approaches are compatible with understanding of how the human brain our current works. Several examples are discussed here. advantage of the minds continual search for meaning. l/Cooperative Learning The term cooperative learning is used to descnbe a variety of instructional strategies are in which students placed in small groups, working together achieve a common to goal (Little Soldier 1994). Much research has suggested that cooperative learning be effective
our knowledge of cognitive research fillfill the suggests why. Working in groups can can human need for social interaction and can cultivate emotional responses in students. In addition, each students role in contributing to the group and working toward a common goal creates a powe purpose for individual learning (Jensen 1998, 33). Block Scheduling Longer teaching periods may be conducive to teaching to the complex brain. Teachers have time to introduce a new topic with hooking activities, exciting demonstrations that stimulate questions in each student. More time is available to make connections to teal concerns, leading to higher levels of student motivation (Fitzgerald 1996). Many different instructional approaches can be used in one period, calling on a variety of intelligences. The Learning Cycle Approach This popular approach in science Instruction (exploration, invention, and application) has been demonstrated by research to result in higher content -4-tducationai Kesearcn service ! i I i I i achievement, improved thinking skills, and better attitudes toward science (Gabel 1995,124). Our new understandings of how the mind works help to explain its success. During the first phase of the Leanung Cycle Approach, students explore new materials and ideas vrith minimal guidance, raising questions about the phenomena being explored and identifying patterns of regularitytwo practices that reflect the brains quest for meaiting. In the invention phase, terms and concepts are introduced that explain the patterns discovered in the exploration phase. In the application phase, students apply the terms and concepts to new situations, thus learning to generalize in a broader context, once again nurturing the brains need to construct meaning (Klosowski 1998). Establish a safe emotional climate where risktaking is the norm, and where students feel that wrong answers are as much a part of learning as right answers. Specific strategies include tapping into the emotional intelligences of the learners and organizing diverse smaU-group work. Create a rich learning environment, resembling a childrens museum. Use enticing presentations of science equipment, art supplies, or computers to stimulate curiosity. Create mini-environments that facilitate a variety of activities, including one-on-one interactions between students and between the teacher and the student. quiet reflection, and learning centers. Sensory input music, print materials, visually appealing bulletin boardscan also engage the students interest. Teaching Higher-Order Thinking Skills The human brains capacity to act as a parallel processor and function on many levels at once helps to explain why higher-order thinking is an important part of the effective curriculum. Asking thoughtprovoking questions or requiring students to explain their reasoning can encourage learners to make connections between past and new learrting, create new neural pathways, strengthen existing pathways, and increase the likelihood that the new learrting will be consolidated and stored for future retrieval (Sousa 1998). Nummela and Rosengren explain that traditional methods of teaching are similar to giving students a Establish a safe emotional climate where risk-taking is the norm, and where students feel that wrong answers are as much a part of learning as right answers. Robin Fogarty, 1998 Teach the mind-tools and skills of life. These run the gamut from communication skills neces- single route to reach a destination, while teaching methods that take advantage of the brains capacity for complex problem-solving are more similar to giving students a map offering many possible routes to reach a destination. Route learning is quicker, and easier to test, but contains far less information than maps (1998, 85). sary in any social environment to skills needed to program computers. Specific skills might include critical thinking (prioritizing, comparing, and judging)
creative thinking (inferring, predicting. and generalizing)
social skills (team leadership and conflict resolution)
technological skills (key- Putting It All Together in the Classroom Research has much to teU. us about how children learn and what instructional methods are most effec- tive. Yet, educators still face the task of constructing UVC. iCL, tuuuaivio ouu ------------------ classroom environments that take advantage of this knowledge. Fogarty (1998) sets forth eight guidelines for the intelligence-friendly classroom. boarding and searching the Internet)
visual skills (painting and sculpting)
and performance arts (dancing and acting). Develop the skillfulness of the learner. Student skills are developed through mediation, practice, coaching, and rehearsal. Skill development occurs through formal teaching structures, such as direct Instruction, as well as through independent readings and research and through the dialogue of peer coaching and mentoring. Challenge students with hands-on learning opportunities and lab-like situations, real-life expe- -5-w Educational Research Service i i i [ I ! k t riences that invite the learner to become an integral part of the process. Involve many facets of intelligence. It is not necessary to include all eight intelligences in every lesson, but teachers might reasonably try to ery lesson, dul leacncrs iiugiii incorporate several different ways of understanding in any given assignment. For example, working on a school newspaper requires that students interview (interpersonal), write (verbal), design and lay out (visual), and critique (logical). Transfer learning from the public arena to the personal through reflection, making learning meaningful and relevant. Possible tools for reflection include reading-response journals, in which the reader writes a personal, immediate response to what has been read, and learning logs, which record thoughts, comments, and questions prior to or following an experience. Balance traditional assessment measures with portfolios and performance assessments. In addition to letter grades, use portfolio assessments (on collections of students best work) and performance assessments (on speeches, presentations, plays, concerts, etc.). An Intelligence-Friendly School Environment: Role of the Principal The instruction that goes on in classrooms will be most effective when it is supported by a total school environment, which can be established only with the support of the principal. David Sousa outlines steps take to bring about changes that principals can in school climate that are compatible with cognitive research. Strive to provide students with a safe, emotionally warm climate in which to learn. Encourage teachers to take appropriate risks with their curriculum and to challenge students with lessons requiring critical thinking. Facilitate the development of alternative ways of assessing students that are more reflective of the kinds of meaningfill, multi-faceted learning fostered in intelligence-friendly classrooms. Provide frequent opportunities for sharing among teachers about ways they have found to join classroom practice to research. Establish and maintain a staff development program that will keep teachers abreast of current cognitive research. Another key role for the principal is supporting the development of materials for parents of preschool children, such as informational brochures rei
garding infant learning, health, and nutrition, and their implications for parenting. Principals are in a unique position to estabhsh partnerships between elementary schools, preschools, and parents to better prepare children for elementary education. Summary Today, we know more than ever about how human beings leam. Our challenge is to change schools to incorporate what we know. The cognitive research has implications not only for curriculum and instruc tion, as discussed in this summary, but also for school organization, assessment, and other important areas of public education. This does not mean taking the new findings of brain research, or neuroscience, so seriously that they curricula. Educational prescribe teaching methods or new theories are often programs based on unproven viewed as gimmicks by both educators and the public. But a healthy skepticism about these findings should not blind us to the fact that they may make a valuable addition to a solid foundation of knowledge about human learning that has been built over the last three decades. The research on human cogmtion provides valuable information that educators can use to develop effective instruction based on the learning needs of students. As Judy Lloyd Yero writes. True brain-compatible education should be an on-going and flexible process of trying to find the most natural and enjoyable approaches to on an increased under- teaclung/learning based standing of the brain/mind (1998,1). -6-cuucawoiiai rsesearcn service 1 1 r I I i si S I II 4 r I i IS References Armstrong, Thomas. 1994. Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom. Alexandria, VA
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Black, Susan. 1994. Different Kinds of Smart. TheExec- utive Educator (January 1994)
24-27. n Bruer, John T. 1994. How Children Learn. The Executive Educator (August 1994)
32-36. Bruer, John T. 1997. A Science of Learning. The American School Board Journal (February 1997)
24-27. Caine, Renate Nummela, and Geoffrey Caine. 1994. Making Connections: Teaching and the Human Brain. Reading, MA
Addison-Wesley. Caine, Renate Nummella, and Geofttey Caine. 1995. Reinventing Schools Through Brain-Based Learning. Educational Leadership (April 1995)
43-47. Caine, Renate Nummela, and Geoffrey Caine. 1998. How to Think About the Brain. The School Administrator (January 1998)
12-16. Campbell, Linda. 1997. Variations on a Theme
How Teachers Interpret MI Theory. Educational Leadership Kovalik, Susan, and Karen Olsen. 1993. What Is the Best Available Knowledge About How the Human Brain Learns? Quality Outcomes-Drive Education (October 1993)
13-16. Kovalik, Susan and Karen Olsen. 1994. ITI: The Model. Integrated Thematic Instruction (Third Edition). Kent, WA
Books for Educators. Languis, Marhn L. 1998. Using Knowledge of the Brain in Educational Practice. NASSPBulletin (May 1998). 38-47. Litde Soldier, Lee. 1994. Here's How: Cooperative Learning: From Theory to Practice. Alexandria, VA
National Association of Elementary School Principals. McClanahan, Anita. 1998. Brain Research Informing Classroom Practices. Early Childhood. Western Oregon University. Online, www.tr.wou.edu/train/ (September 1997)
14-19. Conant, Beth. 1998. Learning
What Weve Learned. Online, www.nauticom.net/www/cokids/ articleleaming.html. Della Neve, Charmaine, Leslie A. Hart, and Edgar C. Thomas. 1986. Huge Learning Jumps Show Potency of Brain-Based Instruction. Phi Delta Kappan (October 1986)
143-148. DiCresce, Amy. 1997. Brain Surges. Online, www.med. wayne.edu/wmp97/brain.htm. Fitzgerald, Ron. 1996. Brain-Compatible Teaching in a Block Schedule. The School Administrator (September 1996)
20-21, 24. Fogarty, Robin. 1998. The Intelligence-Friendly Classroom. Phi Delta Kappan (May 1998)
655-657. Gabel, Dorothy. 1995. Chapter 9
Science. In Handbook cf Research on Improving Student Achievement, Gordon Cawelti, editor. Arlington, VA
Educational Research Service. Gardner, Howard. 1993. Multiple Intelligences: Theory into Practice. New York
Basic Books. Greenhawk, Jan. 1997. Multiple Intelligences Meet St^- dards. Educational Leadership (September 1997)
62- 64. Hoerr, Thomas R. 1997. Frog Ballets and Musical Fractions. Educational Leadership (September 1997)
43- 46. Jensen, Eric. 1996. Brain-Based Learning. Del Mar, CA
Turning Point Publishing. Jensen, Eric. 1998. Teaching with the Brain in Mind. Alexandria, VA
/Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Klosowski, Lyn. 1998. To What Extent Is the SCIS 3 Science Curriculum Compatible with Brain Based Learning? Online. http
//essc.calumet. purdue.edu/ Activity%20Science%20Research/Research%20HP. spring98/htm. Nadis, Steve. 1993. Kids Brainpower
Use It or Lose It. Technology Review (November/December 1993)
19- 20. National Education Association. 1997. Inside Scoop
The Latest on How the Brain Works. NEIA Today (April 1997)
17. Nummela, Renate M. and Tennes M. Rosengren. 1988. The Brains Routes and Maps
Vital Connections In Learning. NASSP Bulletin (April 1988)
83-86. Parnell, Dale. 1996. Cerebral Context. Vocational Education Journal (March 1996)
18-21,50. Paulus, Norma. 1997. Students Need Emotional Response to Learn. State Education Leader Vol. 15, No. 1 (Winter 1997)
11. Perkins, D.N. 1991. Educating for Insight. Educational Leadership (October 1991)
4-8. Seebach, Linda. 1998. Brain Research Cant Guide Education. Online, www.worldafricarmet.com/hfe/ lifel400.html. Shore, Rima. 1997. Rethinking the Brain: New Insights into Early Development. New York
Families and Work Institute. Sousa, David A. 1998. Brain Research Can Help Principals Reform Secondary Schools. NASSP Bulletin (May 1998)
21-28. Sylvester, Robert. 1995. A Celebration of Neurons: An Educator's Guide to the Human Brain. Alexandria, VA. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Sylvester, Robert, and Joo-Yun Cho. 1993. What Brain Research Says About Paying Attention. Educational Leadership (December 1992/January 1993)
71-75. Walker, Dean. 1995. NAESP Research Roundup:Integrative Education. Vol. 12, No. 1. Alexandria, VA
National Association of Elementary School Principals. Willis, Scott. 1992.yfSCD Curriculum Update: Teaching _ Thinking. Alexandria, VA
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Yero, Judy Lloyd. 1998. Brain Compatible Learning. Online.www.funderstanding.com/messages/375.html. Young, Andrea C. 1997. Higher-Order Learning and Thinking
What Is It and How Is It Taught? EducationalTechnology (July/August 1997)
38-41. -7- 11For More Information on Cognitive Research and Instruction More in-depth information about cognitive research and instruction is available from the Educational Research Service in ERS Info-Files. Each Info-File contains 70-100 pages of articles from professional journals, summaries of research studies, and related literature concerning the topic, plus an annotated bibliography that includes an ERIC-CIJE search. Base price per Info-File-. $32.00. ERS Comprehensive subscriber price: $16.00. ERS Individual subscriber price: $24.00. To order, contact Educational Research Service, 2000 Clarendon Boulevard, Arlington, VA 22201. Phone: (800) 791-9308. Fax: (800) 791-9309. Add the greater of $3.50 or 10% of total purchase price for postage and handling. Phone orders accepted with purchase order number or Visa or MasterCard. ERS Info-Files on related topics include: How Children Learn^Presents current research from neuroscience on how the brain works and the implications for learning, teaching, and curriculum. Articles also address brain-based learning, learning styles, and left/right brain hemisphericity. #IE-0343. Multiple IntelligencesCovers programs, curricula, teaching methods, and research results applicable to the seven intelligences identified by Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner. #IE-0130. ) 4 The Informed Educator Series Educational Research Service prepares the publications in The Informed Educator series to provide busy education leaders with condse, yet comprehensive overviews of the most current research and information on topics of priority concern in education. Each publication in this series is designed to enable education leadersincluding central-office administrators, prindpals, curriculum spedalists, teachers, and othersto stay up to date on a leading or emerging issue in education, enabling them to make die best dedsions for the children and youth they serve. About ERS Educational Research Service (ERS) is the nonprofit foundation serving the research and information needs of education leaders and the public. ERS provides objective, accurate, and up- to-date research and information for local school and school district decisions. Prepared by the ERS staff, publications in The Informed Educator series are intended to provide an objective, comprehensive summary of research and opinion appearing in the current literature. The inclusion of any specific assertion or opinion here is not intended to imply approval or endorsement by Educational Research Service or any ERS sponsoring organization. ERS, established in 1973, is sponsored by seven national associations of school administrators: American Association of School Administrators American Assodation of School Personnel Administrators Assodation of School Business Offidals Council of Chief State School Officers National Assodation of Elementary School Prindpals National Assodation of Secondary School Prindpals National School Public Relations Assodation. if 0 5 I *4 Ordering Information: Stock No. 0303. Quantity discounts are available for the purchase of multiple copies of any topic in The Informed Educator series. In addition, school districts may purchase a camera-ready reproducible for any topic in the series, which includes unlimited reproduction rights within the district. For information, contact ERS Member Services Information Center, 2000 Clarendon Boulevard, Arlington, VA 22201. Phone: (800) 791-9308. Fax: (800) 791-9309.14 I S'* K ll l' i LITTLE ROCK SCHOOL DISTRICT INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCE CENTER 3001 PULASKI STREET LITTLE ROCK, AR 72206 September 27,1999 I I 'J f ( i. I I TO
FROM
SUBJECT
Principals Dr. Bonnie Lesley
Associate Superintendent for Instruction School Reform 1 J The evidence continues to emphasize a few essential components for successful school reform. The attached article (provided to me by Mona Briggs) outlines the following six
1. A strong research-based literacy curriculum HIPPY, ages 3-4 Four-Year-Old Program expansion ELLA, grades K-2 Effective Literacy, grades 3-4 Reading/Writing Workship, grades 5-8 High School Literacy - stay tuned etc. 2. A significant extra help components After-school programs Tutoring and mentoring Title I programs Summer School ALC and ACC Language Arts Plus etc. 3. A focus on smallness Middle school teams . Weve provided high & middle school principals a lot of information etc. I i i il 1 I I i ! i' i i i I i 1 I I i ISchool Reform - Memo September 27,1999 Page Two I I *
4 A commitment to parental outreach and community building Parent-School Compacts - elementary and middle schools Title 1 Parent Programs Collaborative Action Team (CAT) VIPS Mentors Parent-Teacher Conferences Communities in Schools PIEs Vital Link Child Development Program (grant proposal) PTA Membership CLT inclusion of parents and community etc. d 5. An ongoing, schoolwide program of social skills development Conflict Resolution Peer Mediation Student Handbooks Parent Education Classroom Management training for teachers etc. I 6. A comprehensive, sustained staff development program Urban Professional Development Initiative, UPDI NSF training Literacy training . CLT/Principals/Broker training Prejudice reduction/cultural diversity training etc. You are encouraged to explore the resources listed in the articles bibliography. BAL/adg Attachments iE/! . . . Risk to Excellence
Perspec...to Reform a Low-Performing Schhttp'.//www.ed.gov/offices/OERI/At-...sletter/sprmg99/Perspectives.html I prom At-Risk to Excellence - Spring 1999 <5- a 5 Perspectives: What Does It Take to Reform a Low-Performing School? 1 sr I The first in a series of viewpoints on current topics I .y I I I I I This article represents the perspectives of Susan Talley, a research analyst in the National Institute on the Education of At-Risk Students. Susan's work with the Department over many years has focused on educational research and development programs to improve achievement for urban, inner-city students. For the past 6 years, she has provided assistance related to promising research-based practices to key personnel in the District of Columbia Public Schools. The article discusses the six critical elements Susan has concluded must be present in a school reform model to turn around low-performing schools. Three decades of research on school reform has led to the identification of four basic elements that students need from their schools
relevant schoolwork, a nurturing and supportive environment, opportunities for academic success, and help with personal problems. Unfortunately, studies of schooling for students at risk of academic failure demonstrate that schools often fail to address the special circumstancesincluding economic, family, community, ethnic, and racial status^that characterize students placed at risk (Natriello, McDill, & Pallas 1990). I I I I i The challenges that low-performing schools must address are substantial. It is not uncommon for 80 percent or more of the students in such schools to be performing significantly below grade level and living in poverty and conditions that are inhospitable to healthy child development. For these schools, a reform model must encompass elements to meet student needs that might not be prevalent in other schools. 7 I e I ( Based on close examination of school reform models funded by this Institute and the research associated with those models, the author conclu
This project was supported in part by a Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives project grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Council on Library and Information Resoources.