Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Continuous Improvement Transforms Lives

Before we begin, this is a light-hearted view on getting better.  I apologize, in advance, if anyone is offended.  Thank you for reading.


Do you have chores at home?  In our marriage my wife and I have some designated chores.  My wife makes sure money is where it needs to be, and I pay the bills.  We both vacuum, but my wife dusts.  (She has never trusted me to safely work around special keepsakes.)  I am in charge of....keeping the bathrooms clean.  Most people get "grossed out" by cleaning bathrooms, but I find great satisfaction in keeping the mirrors, sinks, lavatories and tubs clean.  I like clean floors, and I feel like I can actually see the results of my work.  It makes me feel good to have a clean bathroom.

  • Is it possible to get a bathroom clean?  Yes.
  • Is it possible to get a bathroom cleaner?  Hmmmm.

When I finish cleaning, I don't reflect on how I can get things cleaner.  I try to make sure the job is completed--cleanly--the first time. 

Schools, however, run a little differently.  Our product is not a clean room.  Our students are much more complex than a mirror or a sink.  I/we reflect on how we can get better all of the time.  The paradigm of continuous improvement is so strong that we are constantly trying to do our job better.  We want more students to grow.  We want more students to grow more.  Whatever bar we set for ourselves is never "good enough."  If we hit that bar, we keep raising it.  While moving that bar creates a certain level of institutional stress, we know raising that bar for ourselves is best for our students.  And we would have it no other way.

Our school district will participate in an accreditation engagement review in May.  A team of educators from around the country will visit our district and our schools.  They will review data, observe lessons, talk with stakeholders, and suggest ways we can improve--ways we can "raise the bar" to better help more students.

The accreditation agency, AdvancED, is very clear about their goal:
Our goal isn’t to certify that educational institutions are good enough. Rather, our commitment is to help these institutions continuously improve.
We host these reviews about every five years.  They help us get better, and I am grateful to work in a profession and district that never settles for "good enough." 

True confession--I think I might occasionally settle for "good enough" with my bathroom chores.  Please don't tell my wife.  She might do the same thing with the dusting.



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