Instructional Rounds is a continuous improvement strategy that focuses on the technical core of educational systems as well as educators collaborating side-by-side. Concentrating on collective learning, this process only makes sense within an overall strategy of improvement. This case study examined the Instructional Rounds process in a northern…

This is the latest in a series of case studies highlighting best practices High Schools That Work (HSTW) network schools and districts are implementing to prepare students better for further studies and careers. Fort Mill High School is in Fort Mill, South Carolina, an outlying suburb of Charlotte, North Carolina. Fort Mill links high quality…

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to present the results of a study of an industrial company's top management team (TMT) that fought to survive an economic crisis. Specifically, the article seeks to focus on describing the TMT's composition, group processes, and work during a period of high external pressure; analysing the TMT's work in…

The case study discussed in this article investigated how the district leadership team of one high-performing school district utilized the Baldrige model to implement a system of continuous improvement. Data sources included the district's Baldrige application and feedback report, interviews of the district leadership team, focus group interviews…

This article provides a case study template for creating and "selling" an enterprise-wide leadership development initiative in a highly decentralized organization. Using a story-telling approach, the authors delineate the five separate but highly interdependent stages used to achieve this. Sandwiched between a prologue and epilogue are five…

The University of Chicago's Joseph Regenstein Library Bookstacks Department has used process mapping and continuous improvement to successfully improve its overall operations. The most recent efforts focus on Lean manufacturing, an initiative centered on eliminating waste in manufacturing processes. The conversion of the Bookstacks Department from…

This paper discusses the emergence of a management process known as Business Process Redesign (BPR) in higher education, which is promoted as a successor to the Total Quality Management (TQM) approach that has influenced higher education management in recent years. The paper chronicles recent management changes in higher education and the…

Quality is fast becoming a policy priority in states and localities around the country. As a result, formal and informal networks of youth organizations are seeking and developing strategies to help them assess and improve performance. This report takes a close look at efforts underway in three networks and provides a preliminary framework for…

The experience of the University of Illinois at Chicago in learning about the Total Quality Management approach and applying it to the institution are outlined. Four distinct stages of change were identified: awareness creation; establishment of initial teams; development of infrastructure for quality improvement (QI); and institutionalizing the…

During a time of administrative reorganization at the University of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania), the efforts of a team preparing to implement the Total Quality Management approach were suspended. Problems encountered included flaws in organizational structure, insufficient communication, hidden agendas, deteriorating relationships, limited…

Persuaded that quality teaching is the most important way to raise student achievement, the new leadership of the San Diego, California schools initiated a focused set of instructional reforms to "jolt" the system from bottom to top beginning in 1998. Interviews of educators at all levels of the system, district-wide surveys of…

At Rio Salado Community College (Arizona), project documentation is the final step in the continuous improvement cycle. This stage is very important because it assists others in understanding the work the team has done and documents in detail when, where, how, and why process changes were made. (MSE)

Based on the work of the National Alliance of Community and Technical Colleges and the Center on Education and Training for Employment, this document addresses the subject of Total Quality Management (TQM) in the community and technical college by examining the concept, application, and implementation of TQM and the lessons learned. First, "The…

Arizona State University has developed a model for managing declining resources in administrative service functions. A variant of Total Quality Management, it involves clarification of administrative unit functions, unit self-examination, establishment of program priorities, environmental scanning, creation of an infrastructure to manage change,…

The use of the Total Quality Management (TQM) approach by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Management approach to restructure the graduate school admissions process is described, and lessons learned from the venture are discussed. The resulting five-day admissions procedure now in place is outlined. (MSE)