Posts in Learning to Improve
Principle 12: Remove Barriers to Joy in Work & Learning

Principle 12: Remove barriers that rob educators and students of their right to joy in work and learning. This means, inter alia, working to abolish the system of grading student performance, the annual or merit rating of staff, and the Management by Objective of schools and school systems. The responsibility of all educational leaders must change from sheer numbers to quality.

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Principle 9: Break Down Barriers

Break down barriers between departments and grade levels and develop strategies for increasing cooperation among groups and individuals. Administrators, business & financial managers, operations staff, support staff, students, and teachers, etc. must work as a team to foresee problems in the production and use of high-quality learning experiences.

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Principle 6: Institute Training on the Job

Institute thorough job-related training for students, teachers, staff, and management, so that everyone can make better contributions to the system. New skills are required to keep up with changes in cognitive science, curricula, methods, learning experience design, technology, teaching techniques, services, etc.

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Principle 5: Work Continually on the System

Common management myths (see here and here) must be replaced by sound guiding principles. In this post, I’ll describe the fifth such principle, Work Continually on the System. It is worth noting that the 14 Principles for Educational Systems Transformation are mutually supporting, so it is important to understand all of them rather than studying them in isolation. An in-depth discussion of the full set of Principles for Transformation can be found in Chapter 3 of my recently released book Win-Win: W. Edwards Deming, the System of Profound Knowledge, and the Science of Improving Schools.

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Principle 3: Cease Dependence on Inspection to Achieve Quality

In January and February, I outlined six common management myths. The point of those two posts was to help education systems leaders see what not to do. I’m now turning to a set of principles that can be used by these same leaders to guide their transformation work. Last month, I introduced the 14 Principles for Educational Systems Transformation. In this post I’ll describe the third principle, Cease Dependence on Inspection to Achieve Quality. It is worth noting that the 14 Principles are mutually supporting, so it is important to understand all of them rather than studying them in isolation. An in-depth discussion of the Principles for Transformation can be found in Chapter 3 of my recently released book Win-Win: W. Edwards Deming, the System of Profound Knowledge, and the Science of Improving Schools.

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Principle 2: Adopt the New Philosophy

In January and February, I outlined six common management myths. The point of those two posts was to help education systems leaders see what not to do. I’m now turning to a set of principles that can be used by these same leaders to guide their transformation work. Last month, I introduced the 14 Principles for Educational Systems Transformation. In this post I’ll describe the second principle, Adopt the New Philosophy.

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Principle 1: Create Constancy of Purpose

In January and February, I outlined six common management myths. The point of those two posts was to help education systems leaders see what not to do. I’m now turning to a set of principles that can be used by these same leaders to guide their transformation work. Earlier this month, I introduced the 14 Principles for Educational Systems Transformation. In this post I’ll describe the first principle, Create Constancy of Purpose.

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Principles for Transformation: An Introduction

In January and February, I outlined six common management myths. The point of those two posts was to help education systems leaders see what not to do. I’m now turning to a set of principles that can be used by these same leaders to guide their transformation work. I’ll kick things off this month with a brief  introduction and a bit of background information regarding the 14 Principles for Educational Systems Transformation. From there, I’ll describe each of the principles through twice monthly posts from April through November.

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Principles for Transformation

Over the last two months, I described six common management myths W. Edwards Deming worked to dispel. In January, I tackled the myth of best practices, the myth of the hero educator, and the myth of performance appraisal. In February, I turned to another set of three myths including the myth of merit pay, the myth of accountability, and the myth of extrinsic motivators. The point of these two posts was to help education systems leaders see what not to do. I’m now going to turn to a set of 14 Principles that can be used by educational leaders to guide their transformation work. I’ll kick things off this month with an introduction to the Principles for Transformation. After this introduction, I’ll write twice monthly posts describing each principle.

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