For Immediate Release

Successful Quality Implementation and Results Lead to Teacher’s Award From Local ASQ Section

January 6, 2006 — When an ASQ section in Tennessee handed out their award promoting quality in education last month, they surprised a lot of people.

Including the woman they gave it to.

Peggy Ervin, who teaches first graders at Kingsley Elementary School in Kingsport, TN, is the first classroom teacher ever to receive the ASQ Northeast Tennessee Section’s Leadership and Distinguished Service in Promoting Quality in Education Award. In past years, the award was given to ASQ Section members dedicated to assisting educators in their quest for quality in education. This year, Ervin received the award for her tireless effort to integrate quality methodology throughout Kingsley Elementary classrooms and school systems.

"I had no idea there was any award to be given, let alone that I was going to get an award. It was really exciting," Ervin told the Kingsport Times-News.

Kingsley Elementary, with the assistance of ASQ section members, introduced quality tools to teachers in 2001 through the use of ASQ’s Koalaty Kid methodology which educates teachers on using and facilitating quality initiatives in the classroom and throughout school systems. Kingsley teachers and administration determined writing scores would be their first priority. Prior to introducing Koalaty Kid into the classroom, Kingsley had 20 percent of all students writing at grade level. Today that has increased to 88 percent writing at grade level. This improvement led to the school earning the 2005 Greater Kingsport Area Team Performance Excellence Award.

Ervin has been very involved in the Koalaty Kid steering team and has presented papers and speeches discussing the uses of quality tools and processes in the classroom. The Northeast Tennessee Section has been a proponent of Koalaty Kid and quality in education initiatives for more than a decade. The section hosted the 1999 ASQ Koalaty Kid Conference in Kingsport.

Learn more about the successes of Kingsley Elementary, its school district, and other schools using the Koalaty Kid approach to quality in education.