Guest Blog: What does Lexus, the car company, have to do with school improvement?

Years ago, the car company, Lexus, came up with the slogan The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection. When I first heard it, I was captivated and immediately thought of my decades of work involved in the school improvement process. To me, the slogan perfectly captured what great schools are trying to do.

As a slogan, I would imagine each word was carefully selected. Take the word pursuit. This implies more than just a movement towards. Pursuit implies a level of “focus” and “intensity” towards a goal. Think of a school moving with purpose and intensity towards a better version of itself.

What, then, are we pursuing? The answer, perfection. Does Lexus really think it will achieve perfection? Of course not. Applied to the school improvement process, perfection could be replaced with a term those of us in education know well, vision. A school’s vision is nothing more than a statement that reflects the perfect version of itself. We all know that our schools will never attain our vision, but it gives us something to strive towards, something to pursue.

So, at this point we have a version of our perfect school and we are moving, with purpose, towards it.

How then, should we approach this work? Lexus selected just the right word, relentless. Again, within the context of the school improvement process, phrases such as "without giving up", "singularly focused" and "never stopping" come to mind.

In a nutshell, the school improvement process is about developing a shared vision and working tirelessly and, with purpose, towards it. In other words, The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection.”

This slogan is illustrated in the work at Western Valley Middle School in Phoenix, Arizona. They are relentlessly pursuing a culture focused on building trust, supporting teachers, and aligning every action with student learning. Their movement towards their vision is quite impressive and a fine example of The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection.

About the author: Paul Amoroso currently serves as the superintendent of schools in a small, K-12 school district in New Jersey. Over his career in education, he worked as a teacher, coach, advisor, assistant principal and principal. Working in the field of education has been a true labor of love for him. He recently completed his 33rd school year working in education and he still gets up every morning excited to go to work.