William Ouchi talked about his book The Secret of TSL: The Revolutionary Discovery That Raises School Performance (Simon & Schuster; September 1, 2009). In his book he reports on his research on 442 schools in eight decentralizing urban school districts. Professor Ouchi advocates giving school principals more control over their own schools, including the budget, and diminishing the workload of teachers. The lower the Total Student Load (TSL), he argues, the better students seem to perform. This approach expands on the reform agenda of his book Making Schools Work: A Revolutionary Plan to Get Your Children the Education They Need (Simon & Schuster, September 2003). After his presentation, which was illustrated with slides, he was joined in discussion by Eric Nadelstern and Chester Finn. They responded to questions from members of the audience. Rick Hess moderated.

The event "Total Student Load: The Secret to Boosting School Performance?" was held at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday, September 23, 2009, in AEI's Wohlstetter Conference Center.

William Ouchi is the co-founder of the UCLA School Management Program. He is the author of four books, including Theory Z: How American Business Can Meet the Japanese Challenge (1981), and is a distinguished professor in corporate renewal at the UCLA Andersen School of Management.