An improvement Approach to Quality Education In the United States of America - Research Proposal Example

America has the largest number of children with the lowest scores in mathematics and science among children in the developed countries of the world and such children tend to become adults who cannot compete in the global job market. There is a too wide detachment between the literate and the illiterate, or amid the rich and the poor creating both inequality and social tension. At the moment it seems that American scholars are trying to uplift the regular while maintaining the large disparity and from the viewpoint of quality improvement, this approach will never work. Either, the approach of trying to raise the average by widening the variations in student or school performance is even worse in trying to correct the situation. Therefore, the way forward is to take a better approach to education quality improvement borrowing form Deming’s total quality approach as he says first step for quality improvement is reducing the variation or diversification. Approaching Deming principles to education, we certainly must consider raising the average and at the same time we must reduce the variations which are the two basic building blocks for the foundation of quality education that are currently missing from the American educational tradition. From this concept, the key areas to receive most of the concentration is on pushing up the performance of below-average students as opposed to raising the performance of the top cream having excellent marks in class. This essay explores the values and practices applied in elementary to secondary school level both in the USA and Japan in the light of Deming’s philosophy by defining quality improvement and its application to education. The recommendations in the position statement largely borrow from practices in Japanese schools that have worked in raising the quality of education as compared with practices in American schools. Hence these practices have to be evaluated bearing in mind the current issues in American education in the light of Deming’s philosophy. Deming’s quality improvement approach Dr W. Edwards Deming’s concepts of quality control contributed to the tremendous change in the way that the Japanese produce goods and provide services where his management philosophy was developed from observing how the Japanese blended his teachings on quality control with Japanese culture. Thus lead to the creation of a real economic miracle and people are now trying to use Deming’s management philosophy in improving education in America. It is important to understand the operation of Deming’s management philosophy for it to be applied to the American education as well as look at the fundamental differences between Japanese and American practices in education. According to theories by Deming, the ide behind quality management is minimising disparity in products, and then enhancing the ordinary, a concept borrowed from the consumer experience with motor cars1. This experience is viewed from the customer perspective of car choice in their durability levels and hence affecting sales and customer satisfaction. When customers get a new car, ceteris paribus, they intentionally go for a car that will last 120,000 miles over one that will last only 100,000 miles, however, on the average and to minimize costs, Japanese cars are not designed to last as long as American cars. On the other hand, the customer satisfaction levels for Japanese cars in America are high due to a number of perceptions from the motor car market2. For illustration purposes, suppose for a moment that all American cars are designed to last an average of 120,000 miles, while Japanese cars are designed to last 100,000 miles after being used in the same market. If the Japanese cars then last at least 90,000 miles, almost all purchasers of Japanese cars would be satisfied whilst if 20 per cent of American cars break down before 80,000 miles, the customers are likely to be very upset, enough to complain. This could be a particularly serious situation, for if this 20 per cent of customers of American cars then go to Japanese cars, an American motor car company could be jeopardized and hence in quality management efforts, the variability must be reduced. The resultant effect would be whenever a customer buys a car, his/her car will last at least the miles that the car company guarantees or the customer is led to expect either in his imagination or in reality. Quality Improvement in Japanese Schools The American education system in classroom tends to emphasize each student’s individuality which is a reflection of the emphasis of the American culture, whereas Japanese education tends to group students and focus on the average of several peer performing students. The Japanese school system tries to reduce variation in student performance by encouraging co-operation at all levels in the curriculum as within a co-operative school environment, faster progressing students help slower progressing students. The Japanese educational system is designed in such a way that the students consistently and equally involved in sharing knowledge and learning with each other. This has the potential to reduce the variation among students in overall performance as the encouragement of co-operation is one of the most effective and essential approaches to reducing the variation in education. This, as well as in any social phenomenon is the reason why Deming emphasizes co-operation in the various aspects of quality improvement in performance. On the other hand, competitiveness is indeed a prominent and deeply ingrained characteristic of American culture and hence requires the analysis of the various levels of performance. An observable feature is that when individuals are encouraged to compete with one another, those above the average rise even higher while those below the average drop even lower which has the effect of widening the variation. Furthermore, those greatly below average in performance do not have even the ability or the motivation to participate fully in competition and the notion that if you knew from the beginning that you would lose, why would you even try to compete crops in the minds of the lower than average. Approaches for reducing variation among students To achieve the reduction in variation of academic performance among students in the Japanese education system, there are set strategies to discourage competition such as students going to the school of designation in his or her own area without the option of choosing. There is the practice in America as well as a variety of other global schools where the classification of students is based on ability e.g. honours class. This does not happen in japan and if there are three classes per year level, the class performance in all three classes is almost the same; each class having a wide variability in students’ academic abilities and all students in any one year learn the same core subjects using the same textbooks. Students are expected to experience each year without skipping classes not matter how brilliant a student may be, giving them a chance to go through education as peers. On the other hand, the students who perform at exceptionally poor levels usually advance in year levels at regular speed without the option of having to repeat years. However, they receive extra help from the teachers in a bid to improve their performance and be provided with after class lessons privately. However, there are no awards to the students based on performance as well as no penalties on poor performance; Japanese schools do not single out students for such recognitions3. Egalitarianism is a principle adopted by the Japanese education system and into their culture where all children are born with the same potential. This made easy the homogeneous heritage of the Japanese who share a large area of common values hence the development of an extremely democratic education philosophy. The emphasis is on the belief that all children are born with limitless potential and that they can maximize their potential if they work hard and an appropriate environment is provided by the teaching fraternity, government policies and their parents4. The idea of maintaining faster learners and slow learners in the same environment represents equality may be a moot issue as on the other hand, the pressure on slower students is quite intense. Nevertheless, the fact that all children are expected to achieve high levels of performance and are encouraged to work harder has contributed tremendously to raising the overall level of achievement in Japan. Demerits of the American education in terms of quality improvement American individualism, as reflected in the structures within state schools, supports the idea that each child is born with a different potential and his/her own limitation and this tends to classify students in a way that reflects his ability. This American belief has the effect of widening the performance distribution in schools as further American students are sometimes are placed in “honours” classes as early as the end of the first year. In American secondary schools, various curricular paths are offered to accommodate different abilities and talents of students. In America, unlike in Japan, children are not expected to do equally well in academic and other achievements as most Japanese fifth year students agreed with the statement that any student can be good in mathematics if he/she works hard enough. On the other hand, American fifth year students mainly disagreed with the statement but tend to concur that the test you take can show how much or how little natural ability you have5. The American education system is designed in such a way to make the children believe that the key element determining academic performance in schools is natural born ability as opposed to efforts dedicated in study. It is thus important to change this notion and enhance an environment to motivate them to study – especially when they are labelled as below-average or not-expected-to-perform well. Emphasizing the differing innate ability levels among students inevitably widens the variation in academic achievement levels for all students where the concept of acceptability may be a subtle influence on public opinion about the adequacy of state schools. From childhood on, Americans are used to being told that they are doing fine within their innate ability or within their own group and in a sense, they become used to working for acceptability not striving for desirability6. Americans educated in the kind of system that advocated meeting the lower requirements of acceptability have not been seen to set higher standards or expectations in life as well as on their children in school life too. School choices being based on the attitude of competition, choice school programmes go against the idea of quality improvement by the Deming approach. A good example of a choice program is found in the Richmond School district in northern California where after the district spent millions of dollars providing computers, extra staff, musical instruments, and other expensive equipment, the district came up with a $29 million deficit and went bankrupt six weeks before the end of the school year in May 1991. This left 31,300 children as well as many teachers and staff members stranded as the court ordered that the schools in Richmond were to be kept open for the final six weeks of the school year with a bail-out in funds from the state. However, California Governor Pete Wilson fought the court order, claiming that the bail-out would “reward the district for mismanaging their funds7 The Richmond case illustrates the main characteristics of competition which has the effect of widening the variation in performance and produces losers. However, when no one can afford to continue support of the upward movement of those at the lowest levels of achievement, for competition to stimulate the motivation of people, those with no education and no jobs will be left stranded in the streets; that’s why in Japan, where the society could never afford the cost of supporting those who lose, competition has been historically discouraged. Poor have always been losers in the American systems of competition, without even the chance to participate fully in them and the same is true of inner-city schools consisting mainly of poor students. There is increasing support today for giving principals or teachers more responsibility or decision-making power within their schools. One of the primary causes of the destruction of American public education is said to be that school principals and teachers are often caught in the position of trying harder to please school district bureaucrats than satisfy the needs of students and parents8 Position statement on the improvement of the quality of American education It is important to continuously improve the education system in America to ensure the workforce offered to the labour market meets the needs required. Therefore, to improve ourselves continuously, we must keep setting higher standards or expectations for our on-going performance as well as continue efforts to increase our learning. The American children should not be let to believe that their innate abilities are more important than effort on their part to learn. This will leave them in a position that they will be able to grow into adults who have the required values of continuous improvement in job skills and continuing with their education. Such a challenge is not found in japan where parents insist on the importance of effort to their children9. According to the Deming theory, the first step in improving quality is reducing the variation in products where one of the most effective approaches for reducing variation at minimum cost is co-operation. Optimization of any system, within the Deming approach, is realized by co-operation at all levels and in this case one of the fundamental differences in state education between the USA and Japan is that the US school system operates individually and competitively. This is reflecting a deeply ingrained characteristic of American culture, while the Japanese school system operates co-operatively in a manner to enhance growth and continuous quality improvement. To win competition among schools in a choice programme, each school must strive to be more attractive to parents and students than other schools. Consequently, each school spends more money trying to achieve that distinction, where an educational system based on co-operation, on the other hand, saves money; co-operation means sharing of everything – resources, knowledge, and experience – so that duplications in equipment, resources, effort and time are minimized. More importantly, from co-operation we can expect to achieve synergetic results wherein the entirety is always more than simply the sum of the individual parts; that achievement means a high average with small variation. Co-operation came out as a leading concept in Japan to meet the needs in areas not endowed with resources, the resources which are becoming scarce in America10 Co-operation becomes the most reasonable method to use in economic hardship and to promote co-operation among schools, the variation in educational funding for each child also must be reduced. Having the same dollar amount of funding does not necessarily guarantee a reduction in the variation of performance among schools or children but rather provides equal basis for co-operation; in Japan, the variation of unit costs for public primary and secondary schools nationwide, including facilities or accommodation, is kept amazingly small11. The common aim of the entire US educational system must be established as the Deming philosophy applied to education suggests that each school in its educational setting is a component of the whole educational system in America and each school is obligated to accomplish the overall aim of the system, rather than focusing exclusively on maximizing its own performance. Otherwise, the effort among schools will be fragmented and the system will be sub-optimized; each and every school must exist to accomplish the common aim – to educate students to be equal American citizens, equal not only in political or social rights but also in educationally determined abilities to be both self-supporting and contributing American citizens12. Accomplishing this goal cannot be done without national educational standards as basically, we must decide as a nation what fields of knowledge and what level of achievement within those fields that secondary school leavers must attain as American citizens. Of course, the Japanese system did not develop without drawbacks or flaws that have had to be eliminated as the country became able to afford the solutions economically. Nevertheless, the emphasis on co-operation at all levels, a necessity within environments having extremely scarce resources, has contributed tremendously to raising the educational standard of the entire population in Japan. Perhaps for the first time in American experience, resources are becoming scarce and encouraging individuality and competition is incompatible with providing quality education at minimum cost; we must re-evaluate co-operation as a most efficient and cost effective approach to providing quality education equally to all students in American state schools. Works Cited Deming, W. Edwards. Out Of The Crisis. 1st ed. Cambridge, Mass.: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Center for Advanced Engineering Study, 1986. Print Deming, W.Edwards., The New Economics,MIT Centre for Advanced Engineering Study, Cambridge, MA, 1993 P. 94 Feigenbaum, A. V. Total Quality Control. 1st ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1991. Print Ichikawa, S., Financing Japanese Education, in Beauchamp, E.R. (Ed.), Windows on Japanese Education, Greenwood Press, New York, NY, 1991, p. 87. Naka, A. and Ito, T., Nihon Kyooiku Shooshi . History of Japanese Modern Education Fukumura Shuppan. Tokyo, 1991 Paddock, R.C., A Plan Devised to Aid Richmond Schools, Los Angeles Times, 1 May, 1991. School Choice: Not a Painless Magic Bullet, Editorials of Los Angeles Times, 1 May, 1991 Stevenson, H.W. The Asian Advantage: The Case of Mathematics. American Educator, Summer 1987, p. 31 White, M., The Japanese Educational Challenge, A Commitment to Children, The Free Press, New York, NY, 1988, p. 100 Yoshida, K., New Economic Principles in America –Competition and Cooperation – A Comparative Study of the US and Japan, The Columbia Journal of World Business, Winter 1992 Yoshida, K., Deming Management Philosophy: Does It Work in the US as Well as in Japan? The Columbia Journal of World Business, Vol. 24 No. 3, Fall 1989, p. 12 Read More