Internationally, one of the challenges posed by the move to "quality" is to bring together the disparate interests of students, administrators, and other users not only in planning new facilities but in maintaining and developing them. (MLF)

Principals must become new-age leaders dedicated to achieving a learning renaissance in the nation's schools. Like Sisyphus, principals often find themselves in the ultimate organization box, facing endless uphill struggles. Two exemplary Los Angeles practitioners have transformed their work places into egalitarian learning networks. A new…

Total Quality Management is not a fad. Human resource development must be aligned with the culture of continuous improvement to make it work. Changes may be necessary in hiring, promotion, and performance appraisal. (SK)

Deming's 14 principles, which have revitalized Japanese industry, can help restructure the education workplace. Administrators should agree on future goals and priorities; adopt a cooperative, "lead management" philosophy; cease dependency on mass inspection; constantly improve production and service; institute training and retraining;…

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a helpful tool to assist boards and administrators in improving schools. However, to leap into the quality movement without broad-based support and a critical mass of believers is risky. Presents 20 questions to answer before deciding to initiate TQM. (MLF)

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a process of continuous improvement where decisions are based on data. TQM works for those organizations that are prepared to make it work for them. Discusses seven common mistakes that many organizations make when implementing TQM. (MLF)

Discusses common problems that occur when trying to implement total quality management. Offers suggestions on changing the culture of an organization. (JOW)

A survey of 923 employee involvement programs (57%) yielded 10 themes: range of problem content, team staffing, team membership status, team resources, training practices, information access, financial rewards, performance management systems, goal-setting structures, and roles of job supervisors. (JOW)

Alfie Kohn seems ill-informed about Total Quality Management's educational benefits. Students have always been workers; what is changing is the nature of that work. In schools of quality, teachers and students learn together as they create collaborative, trusting environments where failure is but a temporary step on the road to continuous…

A strategic approach for establishing continuous quality improvement (CQI) efforts in vocational special needs education includes defining CQI and building a rationale for its use, establishing a quality council, developing short- and long-range goals, and implementing CQI-related practices and principles. (Author)

Total quality management fits naturally with service to vocational-technical special needs students. Conception of the institution as a learning organization requires core competencies: shared vision, personal mastery, mental models, team learning, and systems thinking. (JOW)

Today's educational institutions should establish a system of intrinsic rewards for teachers and other staff. This article reviews research on intrinsic motivators, including Deming's total quality concepts, and recommends providing teachers with more individualized instruction, reorganizing faculty supervision practices, giving teachers greater…

To implement Total Quality Management concepts successfully, colleges and universities must change their cultures significantly. In higher education, with its organizational characteristics and traditions, authority relationships between faculty and administrators must be recognized, and some changes in the role and attention of leaders must…

Responses from 33 state education departments to a survey sent to all 50 state education departments about Total Quality Management (TQM) revealed that 22 departments were not currently considering TQM, 11 were considering it, but only 8 submitted designs. Advises school boards of steps to take to bring TQM to their schools. (MLF)

Involving adolescents in school-improvement activities is essential for a total quality school but can create discomfort for teachers inured to traditional class-control mechanisms. This article profiles two initiatives to encourage student involvement through the Quality Student Leadership process in Chicago area schools and in rural Michigan.…