Accountability

Last month I attended a conference on assessment in Fort Worth and recorded the language as it unfolded from speakers who included consultants, vendors, and host institution administrators.

What was late to unfold: accountability. In fact, we were in session for 55 minutes before the word emerged. I think that wouldn't have been the case a year or two ago. Here are the words that preceded it:
........scorecard
........dashboard
........tracking
........deploy
........KPIs
........strategy maps
........implementation
........alignment
........operational review
........systematic
........consistent
........accountability

There were a lot of other words spoken that day, of course. Enough that I finally quit tracking the vocabulary. But I've found a new diversion for the coming year: my own little content analysis of the lexicon of the assessment world.

A plug for the people presenting at "Higher Education - Aligning Your Strategic Goals": Jan Lyddon and Bruce McComb (of Achieving the Dream and other consulting experience) led us in a full exploration of strategic thinking about assessment, David Cook and colleagues (of Information Builders) described the Performance Management Framework software in what was surely the least-pressuring vendor demo I've ever seen, and Rebel Jones (administrator at the University of North Texas Health Science Center) demonstrated how his unit collects and analyzes assessment data for a medical school. Good show!

© 2008 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (www.marybold.com, www.boldproductions.com, College Intern Blog) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.