K- 12 (Should be K – 16) is an old style assembly line

The K- 12 (Should be K – 16) Education system is an assembly line designed like an old style manufacturing line. The workers (Teachers, Administrators, Students, Parents, Staff, and Support) working in the system don't know how and where they fit in the system and do not understand the interdependencies that accompany each process within the education/school system.

Each school must define their aim/purpose and produce students ready to work and live in the 21 Century.

I have stated before the education system in the United States is the last Bastion that has not accepted change and does not know how to “Transform” itself. Instead, it continues to follow the “worst” practices from failed business and management examples that have plagued and resulted in the Demise of the American Management System for decades.

The papers and news are filled with articles about people stating teachers need to be paid by performance. Now in order to do that they want to establish a rating and ranking system.  YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!

Want more proof? Please read this article 10 Telling Teacher Experiments in the Merit Pay Debate by Online Universities.com at
http://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/2012/07/10-telling-teacher-experiments-merit-pay-debate/

How do you reward a teacher in 5^th grade based on test results for a student without including the students K – 4^th grade teachers too? The student output results are cumulative and work in a building block methodology.  We no longer inspect (at least I hope not) quality in at the end of the assembly line.

Perhaps with the implementation of the Common Core Standards in 44 states to standardize and improve our educational system will be effective. My fear is we have yet to learn how to truly understand systems thinking in our educational process as of yet and we are doomed to fail again with implementing a good idea from lack of leadership and know-how.

Please read - http://qualityg.blogspot.com/2012/08/common-core-standards-by-what-method.html

Quality must be designed in the process from the beginning and monitored until the product is completed for the consumer. Each grade level within the education system must work in association (aligned) by using core standards and other methods to measure and monitor the student for mastery of core subjects as the student progresses through the system.
Management by Objectives, Rating and Ranking and all those other programs are “crutches” for leaders who do not know how to do their jobs or they are not capable of doing their job because they are in the wrong position.

Those programs were created for leaders who want to abdicate their authority and not do the tough part of their job and that is managing their people by providing them the proper tools and skills by which to perform their work.

The following example of the 6E's provides a simple method for making sure your people have been proved and end to end perspective of what a leader or manager needs to provide each worker within their system.

Think of Envisioning as the Long-Term Plan that identifies and develops the overall objectives and goals where you need to bring all stakeholders together to understand the End-to-End-System and to Design in Quality from the customers (Internal & External perspective).

Enlightening is more like the Short-Term Plan that narrows the vision down to the system process owners to develop their plans and strategies to meet the Long-Term Plans goals and objectives. It is critical to educate workers on where they fit in the system and the impacts they have on the overall End-to-End Systemic effort of the group.

For more about this process go to http://www.dreammentorprogram.com/DMProcess.aspx