It's the system, stupid

I just read this tale of woe about the start of the school year.

As Edward Deming noted, it's the system, not the worker. Administrators are responsible for the system.

Good luck, Sherry. My thoughts are with you.

Comments

[A. Mercer]

1.

I'll have my own comments on this post and some others I've seen, along with my own tech woes soon. Scott, did you see Susan's comment on Miguel's blog where they are talking about teacher's accountability for their online content and she wonders if she should have pulled this post? Very interesting first amendment stuff to think about. http://tinyurl.com/34x75r

[Phil Bens]

2.

I totally agree with Deming, but how do you think he would value teachers (the workers)?

[Scott McLeod]

3.

Phil, I'm not quite sure I understand your question. Deming was pretty supportive of workers...

[Alfred Thompson]

4.

I took a course from Deming and he was very supportive of teachers and of education. I think he would throw a fit about NCLB because it violates his teaching that you can not "test quality into the system." I would say he would hold administration responsible to a) set clear standards b) make sure that teachers were properly trained in quality tools and how to actually teach.
Deming was also insistant that administration needs to remove fear from the system. Right now there is a lot of fear going on in schools. That is a great way to kill quality according to Deming.

[A. Mercer]

5.

I've added a link to Sherry's post, and my blog response on a new page on policy change on Moving Forward: http://movingforward.wikispaces.com/Changing+Policy

Hope you don't mind ;-)