READING, WRITING, AND CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT An Alaska high school gives a lesson quality. For many people, the thought of high school conjures up memories of awkward teenage years and intense boredom. Sitting in class for hour after endless hour, doodling and passing notes. Because average high school students do not fully realize the significance and importance of school, they sometimes lack motivation. Bewildered about the purpose of it all, students wonder what some of their courses have to do with real life. Students at Mt. Edgecumbe High School in Sitka, Alaska, however, are different. Mt. Edgecumbe's innovative teaching methods challenge students and draw raves from business leaders. The curriculum at Mt. Edgecumbe is based upon the human relations concepts and statistical and graphical problem-solving techniques of the Total Quality Man- agement sciences. Students work with administration and faculty on such issues as improving attendance and grade point averages. The school is the first public education institution in the United States to fully implement the quality sciences throughout its organization and curricu- lum. Quickly becoming recognized for the impressive results of its Continuous Improvement Process (CIP), Mt. Edgecumbe is cited as the type of school America's education system needs in the book Megatrends 2000 by John Naisbitt and Patricia Aburdene. Mt. Edgecumbe High School (MEHS) is an experimental public board- ing school with 210 students and 13 teachers. Located in Alaska's southeastern panhandle, the school opened in 1985 after the state decided to offer an educational alternative for its rural high school students. One of the keys to CIP is that everyone--including adminis- tration, faculty, students, and dormitory staff--must be involved. The participation has had tremendous impact on students. More than 40 percent of the students at Mt. Edgecumbe had struggled at other schools. Through Mt. Edgecumbe's CIP, these same students excel and feel involved in the school. Larrae Rocheleau, superintendent of MEHS, and students Greg Lundahl and Lisa Marie Polk spoke at GOAL/QPC's conference last Decem- ber. Rocheleau said of CIP, "It's part of our culture, part of the way we do business. Part of the way we'll do business forever. It's not a fad." Rocheleau points out that CIP is an umbrella under which other programs can work. "If an outstanding educational program comes along we can use that, too--as long as it fits with the principles of CIP." Rocheleau admits not everyone buys the new concept. "Some people have been doing their jobs a certain way for years and if you tell them they have to dramatically change, it blows their minds," he says. Different levels of buy-in result, ranging from outright rejection to enthusiastic acceptance. Greg Lundahl, a senior at Mt. Edgecumbe, says that in addition to skeptics, other stumbling blocks include budget, politics, and con- flicting personalities. Communication is critical. "You have to break down the walls," says Lundahl. "People have to let down their defenses and put their trust in the process." A Tight Focus CIP isn't the only thing that makes Mt. Edgecumbe unique. The tightly-focused curriculum also adds a new twist to traditional educa- tion. Teachers at the high school emphasize the future social and economic needs of Alaska in classes. One of Mt. Edgecumbe's objectives is to teach the students how to be entrepreneurs in the hopes they will go back to their villages and better the community. Entrepreneurship plays a big role in Alaska, and much of the state's business is with Pacific Rim countries. These issues are integrated with the curriculum: MEHS teaches business, science and technology, entrepreneurship, language, cultural, and computer courses, all focusing on the Pacific Rim. MEHS takes the idea of practical education even further by involv- ing students in a real business. Begun in 1985, Edgecumbe Enterprises is a salmon processing plant run by students through a hands-on, cross-curricular approach. The goal of the venture is to give students the skills and experience needed for running an import/export business aimed at Asian markets. During the 1988-89 school year, Edgecumbe Enterprises made four shipments of smoked salmon to Japanese customers. Rather than have Edgecumbe Enterprises stand alone as an isolated project, many classes at MEHS continually draw upon Edgecumbe Enter- prises experiences and vice versa. For instance, math students calcu- late the dollar/yen exchange rate. Pacific Rim geography is studied in social studies. Art students design promotional brochures and package labels for products. And business and computer students learn how to develop spreadsheets to analyze costs and project prices. CIP Growth The idea of promoting and teaching quality was not something the administration and faculty of MEHS originally set out to do. David Langford, a teacher at MEHS, knew about quality techniques and thought they could be applied at the school. An opportunity to test his theory came when students asked for continuous progress reports so they could monitor their progress. Today the students chart their own grades and set their own goals to avoid disappointment or surprise at the end of the year. Teachers also examine their own grading systems and error rates. The school's hierarchy has gradually broken down: students, teachers, and adminis- trators now work as a team. Changes at the high school have led to improved grades, reduced tardiness, better communication, and increased self-esteem. Examples of the changes and results brought about by CIP are shown in Figure 1. ______________________________________________________________ Figure 1: CIP Changes ù Students initiated a study sampling how others did their homework. They recorded how much time their classmates were actually doing homework and how much time they spent being distracted and wasting time. By studying their classmates, students became more attuned to their own work habits, and grades improved. ù Students decided changing classes seven times a day was a waste of learning time. Now they go to four 90-minute classes a day, allowing more time for projects and in-depth learning in each class. ù The reorganization of the classroom schedule allows for an additional three hours of staff development and preparation time per week. ù Each student receives a "Stats for Success" handbook. It is used to record homework and weekly plans, and to chart grades. ù The students set improvement goals such as receiving all A's, avoiding conduct reports, and reducing tardiness. The school staff, meanwhile, is aiming at better programs and rules for the students to follow. ù CIP has prompted teachers to rethink their teaching styles. One science teacher says he has changed from being an 80% lecturer to a 95% facilitator. ù In the CIP media class, students teach other students. There is no administrator or teacher in the room, it's just students on students. They learn charting techniques and imagineering, among other things. ù At the same time the media class is being held, teachers train other teachers, administrators, and other staff mem- bers. ù Project learning is emphasized. Students write one long, high-quality report that receives grades for each subject rather than writing many short, mediocre reports for each subject. ù Students are viewed as customers. As a result, management has provided better tools, such as computers, science equip- ment, tutors, and evening hours for the computer lab, li- brary, and science facility. ù All staff members have been trained in flow charting. Flow charts of long-range projects are posted so that everyone can see how their part fits into the whole of each project. ù All students receive 90 minutes per week of quality im- provement training and school-wide problem solving. _______________________________________________________ The success of the Continuous improvement Process led to the school's QUEST (Quality Understanding of Entrepreneurship, Science, and Technology) program. As part of QUEST, students take trips each year to learn more about CIP and how it is used at other school districts, businesses, and governments. Last year, students presented their ideas and recommendations to the Sacramento County Office of Education. In Texas, MEHS students gave presentations to the executives of Dow Chemical, Phillips Oil Refinery, and NASA Mission Control. Texas mayors M.A. Brooks of West Columbia, and Harry Beverly of Sweeny, both pro- claimed Monday, Feb. 12,1990, "Mt. Edgecumbe High School Day," for representing an innovative way to educate students. And so a small school makes the big time. The school has an impressive list of business cooperative partners: DOW Chemical, Boeing, Xerox, General Motors, and others. Executives from some companies, thrilled that the students are already trained, generously support the school and offer to pay college tuition to students who promise to work for them after graduation. After hearing Mt. Edgecumbe's presentation at GOAL/QPC's conference, representatives from several prominent universities approached Lundahl and Polk to discuss the students' future plans. The school's fame is sure to spread even further. Last year, a camera crew filmed at MEHS for a documentary that will be aired on national television in the winter of 1991. The MEHS story will be part of a follow-up to a documentary shown on NBC ten years ago, titled "If Japan Can, Why Can't We?" The new project is being funded by IBM Corp., and will be called "Global Quality Revolution." The Principles Behind CIP One of the tenets of Mt. Edgecumbe's CIP is that students and teachers understand the inner workings of the school the best so they are involved in running the school; it's not just left up to the superintendent and other "upper managers" of the school. _______________________________________ Figure 2: MEHS Customer Identification Internal customers ù students ù teachers ù administrators ù all other staff External customers ù universities and colleges ù military ù industrial and service work force ù homes ù society in general ________________________________________ Students, teachers, and administrators at Mt. Edgecumbe modified Deming's 14 Points to reflect educational considerations and also identified their external and internal customers. (See Figure 2.) Mt. Edgecumbe's CIP also integrates ideas from Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. One principle Rocheleau thinks is particularly important is the need for interdependence. "Many workers in American business operate in the 'you' mode," says Rocheleau. "They are told what to do. 'You do this. You do that. You don't make deci- sions, I'll make them for you.' We need to break out of that." Rocheleau says organizations need to promote the "we" mode. "We'll all be stronger if we're interdependent," he says. "This includes administrators in the 'you' mode to teachers. We get into these conflicts--school board vs. union vs. administration--we fight amongst ourselves all the time. We need to change that. We need to bring gov- ernment, business, and education together. We all need to work together if we're going to save the students. At Mt. Edgecumbe, we like to say that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts." Another principle from Covey that Mt. Edgecumbe uses is that students are at least partially responsible for their education Students must be "response-able." "It's up to the administrator to provide the desk, the classroom, the tools," says Rocheleau, "but it's the student's job to learn. We remind students of this. If they buy into the system, they're going to learn a heck of a lot more." Student and Parent Reaction When Lisa Marie Polk, a junior, first came to MEHS, CIP was only initiated in a couple of classes. "My first year at Edgecumbe, I didn't know anything about CIP and didn't care," says Polk. "I hated Mt. Edgecumbe. I wanted to go home and be with my friends and family. I had a really bad attitude. But over the last few years, as this program has grown, I've become afraid to leave. When I go to college, this program isn't going to be there. I'm really scared." Greg Lundahl says he wasn't overly enthused when first exposed to CIP, either. "My first reaction was 'Wait a minute, what does business have to do with school?"' he says. "Then, as I went through the year, I began to see what business did have to do with school. I realized that three years later, I'd be out looking for a job and this will make a difference then." Although parents may eventually be won over to CIP, they can be tough. Polk has had some CIP-related conflicts with her folks "My parents are stuck in their old paradigms," she says. "My father thinks teachers stand above everyone else. I told him a story about a teacher using a suggestion I had made. I thought it was so neat because the teacher had used my idea. But my father got mad, saying you can't do that, you have to have respect for teachers. It wasn't disrespect, it was just constructive criticism." Lundahl can relate. "My parents were sort of the same way," he says. "They came and visited me once and I was telling them about a problem I had and I said, 'Well, I'll just have to talk to the superin- tendent about it' and they said, 'You can't do that. That just doesn't happen in a school."' But Lundahl's parents saw that it did happen and now understand that this is how the school operates. Rocheleau says that parents do eventually become believers, and that CIP would be applicable in traditional schools as well as other boarding schools. "If you asked me if this process would work in inner-city Chicago," he says, "my answer would be 'yes."' Barriers Rocheleau says one of the biggest problems MEHS currently faces is what to do with the grading system. "It's difficult to try and work the grading system into Deming's or Juran's or whomever's model when they all tell us we're not supposed to do that," he says. "If the universi- ties didn't require the high grade point averages and high test scores--they don't have a thing to do with education, anyway--it would really help us. Our students are concerned about where they'll go to school. They're learning what they feel is valuable--computers, Japa- nese, Russian, entrepreneurship--but these things don't have much to do with SAT scores." According to Rocheleau, 47 percent of Mt. Edgecumbe's last four graduating classes are still in post secondary school and almost 95 percent of those are in college. The numbers are especially impressive because the majority of MEHS students are Native Americans, which includes descendants of the Tlinget, Haida, and Tsimpshean Indian tribes as well as Eskimos and Aleuts. "Native kids don't have a whole lot of chance," says Rocheleau. "Eighty-five percent of our kids are rural, coming from villages of average size of 150-200. It's difficult to give them a good education." As an example, Rocheleau says that less than two percent of Native students at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks graduate. To help students beat the odds, MEHS faculty and administration make building self-esteem an important part of the learning process. Rocheleau says, "We try to work on self image so the students feel good about themselves, ready to take on the world. This is very important to us." According to Polk, the folks at MEHS are doing a good job. Polk is a Tlinget Indian and attended a mostly white middle school. "I used to be ashamed to be an Indian," she says. "But when I went to Mt. Edgecumbe, I saw that I wasn't alone and that many Native students, from getting this training in CIP, can be successful. Now I'm really proud to be an Indian. I realize the negative attitude of Indians back home and think I'll have to go back home and CIP them." Spreading the News Alaska's Department of Education has made a videotape on entrepre- neurship programs that includes Edgecumbe Enterprises. Mt. Edgecumbe itself has also made a videotape on the school in general. Both videos are available to the public. "We're not promoting the idea that every school become like us," says Rocheleau. "We don't need clones, we need alternatives. We teach as we've been taught, administer as we've been administered to, and boy, that's tough to break out of." Meanwhile, Polk and Lundahl set their sights on CIP-less college. "Mt. Edgecumbe students aren't going to just get soft when they go to college and slide back into the old paradigm," says Lundahl. "We're going to fight." Polk is also determined. She says, "We'll initiate CIP in every college we get into." [This article originally appeared in GOAL/QPC's _Competitive_ Times_, number 1, 1991]