The U.S. Department of Education's attempt to apply quality assurance methods to its own operations is discussed in this symposium. Three presentations, including handouts, charts, and outlines, describe the quality assurance techniques and research methodologies used by the Department and present some initial results of the program. The first presentation consists of a bibliography of published material relating business quality assurance concepts to federal administration. The second presentation gives the background, approach, and implementation strategies of the Department's quality assurance program. The program is based on participative problem solving among management, employees, and the union, and on the "closed quality loop" incorporating repeated quality assessments and improvements. Finally, the third author presents the results of two Department pilot projects in quality assurance--involving the review of discretionary-grant applications and the processing of travel vouchers--as well as the Department's training programs in quality assurance and a proposal for a joint business-university-government institute for quality assurance research. (Author/RW)