Quality Control (QC) is a process that ensures that an operation’s standards and goals are both realistic and met. Parents, students, and educators all want to ensure that all students receive adequate training for the future, so quality control is a major concern in education. Standardized testing, teaching reviews, and training are just a few examples of quality control methods in education.
The formation of school standards is usually where education quality control begins. These can be guidelines established by an institution, a district, a state, or a country that determine what a student should know by the end of each grade. For example, a quality control standard might state that by the tenth grade, all students must have taken and passed geometry. Teachers’ education requirements, such as holding a valid teaching credential, are also outlined in quality control standards. Once school standards have been established, the overseeing board can begin a cycle of investigation, policy changes and additions, and implementation to ensure that the school is meeting its objectives.
Standardized testing is one way to ensure that education is of high quality. Each grade level administers a test that assesses students’ abilities in required subjects such as spelling, reading comprehension, and mathematics. These tests are frequently given by a third-party provider and are not part of the regular grading process. Standardized tests inform school officials about a student’s educational level in comparison to the current standard. Measures to improve classes in a particular area of the test may be implemented if an age group or grade is struggling in that area.
Another important method of QC in education is teacher review. Teachers in many areas are observed on a regular basis by quality control experts, colleagues, or school management to assess their success in meeting quality standards. Observers may interview students, examine recent grades, and judge whether the methods used in the classroom are truly adding to education when evaluating a teacher’s performance. Using a variety of methods to assess teacher performance is frequently regarded as critical; teachers who are evaluated solely on the basis of standardized testing may overlook important aspects of learning that cannot be measured by tests.
In some cases, listening to student, teacher, and parent feedback is an important part of educational quality control. Students are often full of valuable information about how teachers manage a classroom and how it could be improved, while teachers can provide a clear picture of how a particular class is struggling or succeeding. Paying close attention to feedback can aid in the development of solutions to quality control flaws.
To help improve QC in education, laws and funded programs are sometimes used. Governmental intervention can sometimes be used to address a widespread quality problem that is beyond the control of a single school or educational system. A government-funded program that provided free nursery school to help prepare young children for an educational environment is one example of government involvement in educational quality control.
In education, quality control must be a continuous process; meeting standards one year does not guarantee future success. School officials can stay on top of quality assurance from year to year by creating a continuous process of data collection, review, and implementation. Using a variety of techniques also ensures that the entire picture of a school or school system is examined.