As more and more manufacturing and service companies turn to Six Sigma for improved efficiency, it is interesting to know that the same quality strategy can also be used in the public school system.
It all started when businessman and an advocate of Six Sigma himself Jim Wiegel, president of the school board for Adams County chool District 12 in Thornton, Colorado (USA), gave his fellow board members an unusual holiday gift. He gave each of them a copy of the book The Six Sigma Way and told them to read it during the break and be ready to discuss it at the first school board meeting in the new year.
Wiegel knew that it would not be easy to convince academic people to do extra work. His first step was to find a consultant who would work with a public school system. He found consultant Peter Pandy, who did leadership training. Pandy then went to work. His first step was to present a case study of a radio broadcasting company. He demonstrated how a system with many flaws could be improved by a careful, thorough application of Six Sigma. In turn, faculty and staff learned how a problem can be solved by using a step-by-step method of looking at all aspects of a process: to identify and quantify problems, to analyze, improve, and finally control a process.
Then came Brien Hodges, an assistant principal who wanted to solve some issues within the school system and had statistics training. Hodges was familiar with Six Sigma, thus he was perfect as quality improvement process evaluator. He received Six Sigma training, advancing to Black Belt status.
Hodges being a teacher himself knew that teachers are good at finding solutions to problems. Thus, he would begin every meeting with questions like “what is the problem?” “how do you know?” “what are the causes?” “what treatment can we apply” and “what the results likely be?”
After many repetitions of this process, the teachers began to see the importance of identifying the problem before trying to solve it.
One problem identified was poor air quality in the classrooms. After the Six Sigma DMAIC, it was found that some of the teachers kept animals in their classrooms, without even the slightest intention of caring for them. Other teachers, for lack of appropriate space, had placed books, papers and other materials on top of ventilators, thereby blocking effective air circulation in those rooms. The result of the Six Sigma project was clean air. Also, the teachers were happy that their grievances had been listened to, and that a solution had been found. To top it off, the school district was honored with an indoor air quality award.
Then came the harder part, which was the curriculum aspect, the heart of the education system. One problem was that the schools in the district were not all teaching the same curriculum. It was impossible for the district to assess students with a standardized test.
What Hodges did, he had the teachers apply Six Sigma to this problem. The teachers found that it could be done. The move was to pilot one textbook through the ninth and tenth grade levels (and advanced eighth grade) in all schools in the district. At the end of that period, with all students literally “on the same page,” they would be able to test on a particular core of knowledge. Test results would be quantifiable, and there would be the added benefit of a cost savings. With all the schools buying the same textbooks, a larger discount could be negotiated.
“The key,” Hodges said, “was taking us out of the way we were used to thinking. Forcing a different pattern of thinking brought a newer, clearer vision of what could be done.”
Hodges’s work does not stop there. With the success of the pilot projects he is excited and is bursting with ideas.
Using Six Sigma to Solve Issues in Public School System
