A Comparative Case Study Analysis of Administrators Perceptions on the Adaptation of Quality and Continuous Improvement Tools To Community Colleges in the State Of Michigan

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether community college administrators in the state of Michigan believe that commonly known quality and continuous improvement tools, prevalent in a manufacturing environment, can be adapted to a community college model. The tools, specifically Six Sigma, benchmarking and process mapping have played a critical role in improving performance in the manufacturing sector. In 2008, the Obama administration made restoration of America’s educational prominence a campaign promise and committed to the development of the American Graduation Initiative, a $12 billion plan to reform U.S. community colleges to be executed over the next decade. The outcome of this research study will help to prove whether administrators believe that continuous improvement and quality tools commonly found in manufacturing can be adapted to Michigan community colleges. The proposed tool for the study of the research problem was a mixed model Delphi study and a Pearson Correlation Coefficient. The stakes for this research are high for community colleges. The promise of President Obama’s American Graduation Initiative put continuous improvement and measures of academic quality in the national spotlight. The results of the study indicate that, in the opinions of administrators, quality and continuous improvement tools that have been proven successful in other industries such as benchmarking, process mapping and Six Sigma can be assimilated into community colleges in the state of Michigan.