Jennifer Armenia

EDUL 6015

Assignment 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

            Schools now require students to take many tests during their educational career.  Most of these tests are high stake tests which require the child to pass the test in order to move on to the next grade level or class.  Many students are constantly struggling to meet the bare minimum to pass these tests.  This just one reason why a school must have a successful quality management plan in place.  Rather than find a quick fix to help these kids pass the test, it is important to find a long – term solution so that students are not faced with fear of not passing the tests year after year.

            From looking at test data, it is evident our school needs to improve language arts test scores.  Students achieve much higher in math and reading than they do on the language arts portion of the CRCT.  What can be done to increase students test scores in language arts?

           

TQM Plan

The goal of this TQM Plan is to raise student test scores on the language arts portion of the CRCT. 

Juran’s model for TQM would be most effective in this scenario since Juran’s model targets part of an organization for improvement and our goal is to increase one area of test scores.  Juran uses quality-control charting such as flow charts, histograms and trend charts to identify the upper and lower limits.  This helps to see if a product has fallen below the lowest acceptable limit and change can be addressed to fix the problem.

An outside consultant needs to be hired in order for the TQM to be effective in raising test scores on the language arts portion of the CRCT.  The consultant would come in and help the school implement the TQM plan, but also teach the staff at the school how to implement the TQM process once the consultant leaves. 

During this step of the process, a decision needs to be made as to what a “quality” product will be.  What test scores will result in a quality product?  During this process it is also important for all the administration and staff to be active participants in the TQM.  It will be explained that this process will not be successful without the participation of all staff in the school.  It will also be explained to the staff that even though it may seem that we achieve our goal this process is never done, it can always be done better.         

            Since many teachers are afraid of change in schools and don’t want to change, it is important to approach this process in a positive way in order to get the school staff to support this process and make a successful change in the school. 

            Once the lower limit on a “quality product” is set, a steering committee and a group of department members are created to find solutions to solve the problem and raise Language Arts CRCT scores.  In these groups the following questions will be discussed and answered:

1.      What does the school do best and what can it do better?

2.      What does the school do worst?

3.      What improvement opportunities do we have?

4.      What are some obstacles that our school faces to overcome the poor product quality?

5.      What TQM model will be best to achieve our goal?

6.      How will we measure our progress?

After the two groups have discussed these questions and have reached possible solutions, the groups will then return to a large group to discuss their answers to the questions.  An agreement on the strengths and weakness will need to be made and a decision on which TQM model to follow will be made. 

            Next the customers (parents and potential employers) need to be assessed on their needs and wants.  A survey to the parents and businesses in our community will be sent home.  This will help in identifying strengths and weaknesses which the administrators failed to see.  The data from these surveys and will be used with the steering committee to help plan the TQM process. 

            It is now important to begin to implement strategies for the TQM transformation.  The areas for improvement have been placed in order and the staff is aware of these areas.  Leadership teams (local quality teams made up of teachers and process review committees made up by the principal, department leaders and an outside school administrator) are made up to assist in the transformational process.  Everyone in the school will be on some type of leadership team which will allow all employees to be part of the TQM process.  Teachers will receive training for programs that have been adopted as part of this TQM plan.  There will also be monetary rewards for teachers and administrators who help make this TQM plan effective and produce quality products shown through the Language arts scores on the CRCT.

            Once this plan has been implemented and the outside consultant has left, the process will continue by using the Plan, Do, Check, Act procedure.  This will allow the school to continue to check the students’ performance and improve the language arts program where it is needed.  This will help to produce quality products which will satisfy the customers (parents and potential employers).