Schools team with manufacturing managers to bring quality tools into the classroom

April 25, 2002 - Rolesville Elementary students and teachers take part in Koalaty Kid, a program that uses the same techniques to solve problems that quality assurance managers use in manufacturing plants.


Sandra Heath
Rolesville Elementary teacher

In Sandra Heath's classroom, the walls are decorated with different charts and tables. One lists the series of steps the students should take as they enter the class to prepare for the day's lesson.

Quality tools in the classroom

"You know there are rules that tell you what you need to be doing," said Heath, pointing to the chart. "The rectangles show that there are directions , such as 'Come in quietly.' If there's a diamond, it's a question or a decision. When you design a flow chart, rectangles show the directions that need to be focused on and the arrows lead you in the right direction. You notice at the top, the rectangle says 'Enter the room quietly. Choose a word plexer to solve. Work on assigned project. And choose a book to read.' After you do one of those things, then you look down at the diamond where the red arrows are and that is a question or a decision. What does that say Jared?"

"Do you have the materials you need for class?" Jared answered.

Heath presents two flow charts to the students. Each sheet is filled with rectangles, diamonds, and arrows.

"If you look at the first rectangle, it gives you a direction," Heath said. "What does the first rectangle say?"

"Pick a number greater than 100," the students reply.

The students complete the eight-step process. As they complete their work and compare answers, they smile.

"How many people got 22? Everyone!" Heath asked. "That's because of the flow chart's process. You will always come up with the number 22."

The fifth-graders complete a second worksheet. This one has seven steps. Then Heath directs them to create their own math flow chart.

"I think this is a more organized way to teach. It teaches them steps to come to a solution," Heath said. "When they write it out and see it visually, it makes more sense to them. I can tell a difference. They're learning more and remembering it."

Heath points to her students' current project, making a math dictionary.

"They are making a math book from 'A' to 'Z,'" Heath said. "In order to organize their thoughts, I have them use a lotus diagram. They put a math term in the middle of each diagram and in each section around it, they might write related terms such as graphing, measurements, decimals, fractions, so they can organize their book in that way. Then they can think of ideas for fractions and for decimals and when they come to that letter, they can pull from their diagram the different ideas. Rather than being overwhelmed, they have an organized way to go about the assignment."

At the end of class, Heath reminds the students to complete their plus/delta forms, another quality tool. The students write down the things they liked and didn't like about the day's lesson. She uses the comments to improve the lesson and address student concerns.

Quality tools help teachers organize instruction

Posted by Heath's desk is a lotus chart that provides a map of the curriculum she plans to cover for the quarter. Rolesville's teachers have mapped their curriculum for each quarter on lotus charts showing their plan for covering the state's standard course of study for the year and finding new ways to work together, integrating math, language arts and character education instruction.

This is the school's second year of Koalaty Kid. They have received training in using quality tools, worked with another Koalaty Kid school in Wake County, and received help from business partner GlaxoSmithKline. The company has provided financial support and employees who are members of the American Society for Quality (ASQ).

The school has established teams of teachers using the quality tools PDSA (Plan-Do-Study-Act) problem-solving process in its school improvement plan. The teams are studying ways to improve reading, math, writing, safety and security, school climate for parents, and school climate for teachers. Their efforts will help shape the plans for strengthening the school.

Educators and Quality Assurance Managers

Bob Carter is a quality assurance manager and the current local chair of ASQ's Koalaty Kid committee. Carter works with MTS of Cary, and his company partners with Lacy Elementary.

Flowchart
A flowchart is a pictorial representation showing the steps of a process.

"At Lacy, we participated in the initial training with quality tools," Carter said. "We participated on their committees, the leadership committee, the quality committee and the student achievement committee. We also facilitate a PDSA team, which is doing problem solving."

The school is looking at differentiation, the teacher's task of meeting the individual needs of each student in the class.

"This year the team has tackled differentiation, the whole area of making sure that within a given classroom that the teacher is able to address the growth needs from one end of the spectrum to the other," Carter said. "We plowed into root causes and identified four that we're tackling one at a time. The first one is training. We've explored the training issue pretty thoroughly. We've explored many different solutions, and we are in the period where we're wrestling with what can we really do. You can't do everything. It's too complicated a picture. We're going back now to pick up the other root causes. Lack of time is one and student and parent involvement is another."

Carter and Rex Teves of ASQ can help the school staff use quality tools to solve problems. Their tools make meetings more effective using agendas, sticking to the agendas, and writing up minutes of the meeting for distribution to those who are interested. In the meetings, the tools focus discussion and build consensus.

"When a group of people come into a meeting, they all come in with different perspectives, because they come from different points in the organization," Carter said. "The first things quality tools provide is a picture of what the scenario is that everyone can buy in and agree on. The first stage in solving the problem is for everyone to agree there is a problem and what it is. That's probably one of the most important parts of the problem solving team process, the visibility, so that everyone has a common line."

In Lacy's study of differentiation, the team looked at information they received from teachers.

"Our problem statement after receiving teacher feedback was that teachers were uncomfortable with applying differentiation in the classroom," Carter said. "Once you have that statement you step back and say 'OK, what are the causes of this?' We went through three different meetings brainstorming causes and came up with 50 separate causes for teachers being uncomfortable. In the classroom you may have all these causes on post it notes. You create an affinity diagram by putting the notes in groups. The categories of causes were training, time to implement, and philosophy. How many different possible solutions can you identify for these causes? You put a lot of intelligence into working through this thing methodically and then you come down to a couple of key solutions."

In manufacturing, an assembly line worker using quality tools may chart his work and post it at his workstation. Carter said that would help him plot his results and help him catch problems faster. Teves said in Koalaty Kid classrooms, students can collect and display information about their progress.

"The students now collects their own data on test scores, maybe it's reading test scores over a period of months," Teves said. "They have a graph that says how they're doing since the beginning of the year, where are they today. It becomes very visible. Because they know where they are, it can help them put together academic goals. Where do they want to be at the end of the year, or perhaps next year? They can use graphs and information, whether it's reading, writing, math, or the amount of time spent on homework. They keep this information so they know where they are and use it to help lead student conferences where they can sit down with parents and teachers and say, 'OK, here is my progress today. Here is where I am. Here is the data. And based on this, I think I can get to this level.' They take more responsibility for their learning. Just like the assembler on the line, they don't have to rely so much on outside help."


The affinity diagram allows groups of people to identify and process large quantities of ideas. A question is posed. Team members write their ideas on sticky notes. Then they arrange the notes into groups and top each with a heading.

Educators use quality tools for school improvement

Teves said Koalaty Kid ties into other Wake County School efforts to find ways to continually improve school operations, such as the Baldrige model.

"We talk a lot about making decisions based on data and gathering the data so that the whole team can look at the data and come to a consensus," Teves said. "The process is a consensus building process. Koalaty Kid provides the data and the information to make decisions. The Baldrige model can be used in different ways. One way is as a framework for continuous improvement. I know a couple of schools have restructured their school organizations so it's in alignment with Baldrige. They may have a stakeholder focus committee. They focus on community resources and business partnerships for example. There are ways to link the Baldrige process into the classroom. I have seen that done."

The Baldrige Award is given by the President of the United States to businesses, and education and health care organizations that apply and are judged to be outstanding in seven areas: leadership, strategic planning, customer and market focus, information and analysis, human resource focus, process management, and business results.

"There is a lot of overlap between Baldrige, ASQ, and quality tools," Teves said. "ASQ provides the people part. It's a professional organization. The people in the organization use quality tools. They are familiar and knowledgeable about the Baldrige framework. They may use it in their businesses."

Koalaty Kid History

Koalaty Kid began in 1988 when Corning, Incorporated employees who were members of the American Society for Quality visited an elementary school with a program to encourage students to read, do their best on homework, and treat others with courtesy and respect. They sought to provide other schools with the same ideas. In 1994, the ASQ Koalaty Kid Alliance was founded, strengthening the connection between the society and educators worldwide.

IBM partnered with Northwoods Elementary to establish the first Koalaty Kid program in Wake County. Since then, eight schools have completed Koalaty Kid training and have begun to work with business partners including Olds, Lacy, Northwoods, Rolesville, Underwood, and Yates Mill elementary, West Cary Middle and Southeast Raleigh High. The Raleigh section of the American Society of Quality has established a Koalaty Kid committee to work with them.

The program provides a structured, problem solving method that helps schools in their continuous improvement process. By providing on-going staff development and by tapping community resources to solve tough problems, Koalaty Kid fosters an environment where students become more responsible for their learning.

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Baldridge National Quality Program - U.S. Department of Commerce