Can "quality" be measured? Can it be documented that something is "of quality?" I recently sat in on a graduate-level class in education. The students, masters and doctoral candidates were faced with the task of defining "teacher quality" and then developing policy that would create and support it. This was an interesting exercise, as one student after another listed attributes such as interpersonal skills, knowledge of subject matter, skills in pedagogy, etc. The struggle became one of measuring these qualities so that policy can be developed and outcomes can be shaped. However, there were too many variables-environment, classroom, teacher prejudices, parents, administrators, etc.-that could positively or negatively affect the outcome. This makes "teacher quality" difficult to quantify and measure, and yet, in the world of education, politicians, parents and society demands some way to measure "quality." The solution to the conundrum came when one student differentiated between "quality" and "effectiveness"; something that can be measured by tests. When it comes to people, quality is difficult to measure, let alone model and promulgate.
What about something less fuzzy than people? Can quality be measured in manufacturing? The bigger question is, should we be trying to measure quality, or as with teachers, should we be measuring effectiveness?