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Quality Schools
St. Louis area schools are blessed with an abundance of devoted, reform-minded parents, teachers, and administrators. Unlocking their potential and empowering them to make individual schools better places to learn and to grow is the purpose of Quality Schools. The program is a collaboration between the Olin School of Business and the George Warren Brown School of Social Work. Thanks to our benefactors, including the Procter & Gamble Foundation, E. Desmond Lee, The Webb Foundation, A.G. Edwards & Sons, and Kemper National Insurance, Quality Schools provides schools with the management tools to empower teachers, students, parents, and staff. Using the principles of Quality Management, teams of students and local teachers tackle a wide variety of current educational challenges. The issues that are addressed can be as big as improving discipline and reducing absenteeism or as small as re-engineering the lunchroom line. The ultimate goal is the same -- to improve the educational process.
The Quality Schools program was started at Washington University in January 1996 and includes the following basic elements.
- Training sessions for school leaders: A core group of school stakeholders, including administration, teachers, board members and parents, participate in intensive workshops designed to train educators in the concepts of quality management. Topics covered include Focusing on the customer, Leadership/Empowerment/Governance, Continuous Process Improvement, Effecting Cultural Change, and Implementation.
- Student consulting teams: After the initial training is complete, a team of MBA and senior undergraduate students will be assigned to the school. For approximately ten weeks, these students work with the school to identify issues and to facilitate the development and implementation of plans to help solve them.
- Quality management expertise: School participants learn the quality management techniques from faculty experts at the Olin School of Business, as well as from individuals who have successfully implemented those techniques in their schools. These experts in the field are available to provide support as needed throughout the semester.
The Quality Schools Vision is to create continuously improving environments to enhance learning for children in select public schools in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Our mission is two pronged: to train students and educators by teaching them the principles of Quality Management, and to give them firsthand experience in applying and implementing these principles, and to give students a lifelong appreciation for the benefits of community service. The program’s underlying values include the following:
- Children are our present and future and deserve the best possible learning environment.
- All people, from kindergarten to adult, can benefit from learning and applying the principles and tools of Quality Management.
- The Olin School team and Principals at participating schools demonstrate their commitment to the program by articulating its vision, communicating openly and effectively, binding its members, and living the vision.
- People of varied backgrounds, skills, and perceptions can work together to achieve a common goal.
- Priority for selection into and participation in the program will be given to schools with significant numbers of students from low income families.
- Change can be good, even when it produces stress and conflict.
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