Focus on Quality
Wow! What an issue (Improving School Quality, November 1992)! Glasser's syntheses of W. Edwards Deming's work provide great hope for schools. The big three concepts—eliminate coercion, focus on quality, and do self-evaluation—can be our salvation. And they don't cost a dime.
—Cal Getty, Principal, Orchards Elementary School, Vancouver, Washington
Spell Out Specifics on TQM Assessments
Your November issue spurred me to make good use of the bibliographies on TQM and systems theory.
One question needs attention: What alternative assessments for staff are in concert with Deming's principle to “cease dependence on inspection”? Enid Brown did not give an inkling of the kinds of performance appraisals needed (“On Deming and School Quality,” November 1992). It's all very well to “focus on the system as the problem,” but the answer dances away from the reality of the teacher who just should not be a teacher. I'd like Brown or Deming to say what some of the alternative assessments for staff might be.
—Richard A. Gordon, Department of Early Childhood/Elementary Education, Queens College, Flushing, New York
Teaching Is Practice, Not Production
As I read my way through your November issue, a nagging concern developed. TQM is a system of organizing management and the work force in such a manner as to increase the productivity of the organization. I have yet to hear of TQM principles being applied to the improvement of law, medicine, architecture, accounting, hair styling, and other professions that constitute a practice rather than a production process.
Is it because we think of education as a process where all we have to do is make our teachers more productive to turn out better products (students)? I'm concerned about this mindset.
—Thomas J. Shepro, Cooperative Educational Service, Agency 2, Milton, Wisconsin
Where Was Glasser?
The November issue would have been enhanced greatly had William Glasser been interviewed. Just as Deming suggests the work environment be made less coercive by changing the authoritarian role of the manager, Glasser wants to change the emphasis in schools from the 4 Cs (care, custody, control, and conformity) to one that empowers students to become active learners and faculty to become people managers.
—Thomas Edward Bratter, The John Dewey Academy, Great Barrington, Massachusetts
MERGE Ahead!
Your October issue (Untracking for Equity) addressed the full range of issues a school district must confront in dismantling categorical programs.
Your cover especially captivated me because Project MERGE is what we have called our 10-year effort to place students with special needs in general education classrooms within neighborhood schools. Such endeavors require major efforts and a systems approach that deals with funding, staff development, instructional strategies, curriculum, parental involvement, and expanded principal responsibilities. Tracking is a tenacious concept!
—Stillman Wood, Assistant Superintendent, Olympia School District, Olympia, Washington
