Some teachers and principals think 'quality' and immediately see run charts and Pareto diagrams. To Taylor, commitment to continuous improvement is the focus of the school's quality efforts, not making the charts and diagrams that map its progress. The northeastern Ohio school has taken continuous improvement to heart. The principal and teachers monitor progress towards the school's learning goals.
Students track their learning progress and monitor other issues they identify.
Keeping the focus on what children are learning is essential, said John Jay Bonstingl, director of the Center for Schools of Quality in Columbia, Maryland. Quality schools create an environment in which no child is lost, he said. In quality schools, people monitor their own work, judge their own work, and help others to improve as they improve,'' he said. With the help of a parent at the school, Ridgeview joined Koalaty Kid, a program started by the American Society for Quality to introduce quality concepts to schools. During the first two years, an ASQ consultant visited the school six times, spending several hours each time working with staff members to refine their application of the tools to the school's goals.