Within the past 5 years there has been an international movement to adapt the principles and practices of Total Quality Management work environments to school-restructuring agendas. This paper reports on the development of a model called the Educational Quality System, a benchmark assessment tool for identifying the essential elements of quality…

All too often, rhetoric has become the guide for change, rather than philosophical assumptions and value systems. This paper presents three organizational constructs to assist schools in successfully transforming their work cultures into learning organizations. The three components include systems thinking and quality concepts, social…

Thirteen school districts, a regional training network, and a university in Florida formed a partnership to develop support for the implementation of the statewide plan, "Blueprint 2000." Funded by the Florida Department of Education, the partnership used a quality and systems framework for helping the schools and districts in their restructuring…

Chaos theory provides a useful mental model for guiding change as leaders garner the energy from unpredictable events for realizing transformation goals. The paper considers chaos theory as a framework for managing school change toward Total Quality Management work cultures. Change is possible to manage when plans are made and then followed by a…