Setting Targets Benchmarks and Standards

Designing and Implementing an Academic Scorecard," Harold F. O'Neil discusses how the University of Southern California School of Education adopted the Kaplan and Norton's balanced scorecard approach to create an "academic scorecard" to measure their school's progress and accountability. O'Neil concludes that this scorecard approach is useful in examining the Rossier School's academic performance as well as in identifying areas that need improvement. The adaptation of the Kaplan and Norton model is significant, since this model was initially designed for business organizations - an area that universities traditionally eschewed.

However, O'Brien and the other educators at the Rossier School have successfully adapted this model for the changing needs of the School of Education. In doing so, they have created a model of accountability measures and benchmarks that could be adopted by other schools and universities. O'Brien observes that universities have traditionally functioned under a model of "organized anarchy," where the principle of academic freedom has remained inviolate.

While such a system is necessary for higher education, it is also inadequate in identifying areas of excellence and conversely, areas that need to be improved. The strength of O'Brien's model is that it allows university administrators to set "benchmarks" to measure how the school is doing without compromising the all-important academic freedom that faculty professors need. The model takes advantage of benchmarks that are already available, such as the GRE scores and the U.S. News and World Report rankings.

In time, the O'Brien model could perhaps add another benchmark in the form of the number of graduates who are.