Most administrators agree that school improvement and change are needed. Disagreement among administrators arises over how the improvements should be made. Total Quality Management (TQM) is a powerful tool in bringing about change and should be considered as an effective alternative in improvement efforts. The TQM approach is designed to address the barriers to change, and most importantly TQM teaches organizations to learn. Total Quality Management consists of three basic principles: (1) systems thinking, a way of agreeing on a shared understanding and picture of the interrelationships among purpose, people, methods, environment, materials and other factors that influence the organization's work; (2) management by data, ways of gathering and using data to understand how well a system is doing; and (3) continuous learning, a disciplined method of inquiry that allows everyone in the school to test ideas about how to change the way they work so that the school as a whole benefits. Before implementing the TQM system educators will find it helpful to do a self-assessment using the Baldrige criteria. The Baldrige criteria are designed to bring about quality improvement of the entire system and enable the identification of all the independent pieces that fit together. These criteria describe the behaviors that exist in any organization that accomplishes quality results. They are: leadership; information and analysis; strategic quality planning; human resource development and management; management of process quality; quality and operational results; and customer focus and satisfaction. These criteria, provide a framework for TQM learning. The worksheets necessary for conducting the assessment using Baldrige criteria are included. (KDP)