Per the book: The Symphony of Profound Knowledge: W. Edwards Deming’s Score for Leading, Performing, and Living in Concert, by Ed Baker —

“Rating and grading is analogous to inspection of parts in the factory. Inspection is after the fact, after the parts are produced. Therefore it does not improve the process that produced the parts; it does not prevent defects from occurring.”

Baker shares why such practices in public schools are often counterproductive:

“Likewise, many administrative practices in schools do not help to improve the system of education, practices such as improvement goals without a method to achieve them and grading and comparing schools to provide pressures to be above average, as if more than half of any group ever could be above average in any measurement.”

Baker emphasizes the development of systems to design quality into the “product” at the start.

The Symphony of Profound Knowledge: W. Edwards Deming’s Score for Leading, Performing, and Living in Concert