This volume describes in practical terms how schools and colleges can use the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award assessment as a tool to document and measure areas of existing quality and to identify areas for improvement. This Award is currently given annually to recognize quality in business companies with plans to expand it to include educational institutions by 1995. The award criteria for education are customer focus and satisfaction, leadership, continuous improvement, total participation and staff development, quality in operational results, problem prevention and resolution, strategic quality planning, management by fact, partnership development, and community responsibility. Chapter 1 describes these criteria in detail. Chapter 2 explains and presents a series of surveys to be completed by different groups within the organization for analysis of the current environment. Chapter 3 focuses on development of an action plan. Chapter 4 discusses why schools should implement this assessment process. Chapter 5 describes the application of Total Quality Management to schools. Chapter 6 contains three master forms for the assessment process. Chapter 7 contains a case study of a school district that implemented the assessment process. An appendix contains two figures illustrating the Total Quality Schools Model. (JB)