completes, cleans, and polishes them for cyclical review by the committee until they effectively reflect the faculty's meaning.
• Set up a cyclical process for reviewing goals and objectives as they
are developed. If a college is developing outcomes for all of its departments, a central review mechanism may work well. If development is within a single department, those with the most expertise may do the reviewing. The purpose of the review, say, at the college level, is not to judge the quality of content; that is for the disciplinary experts to decide. The reviewers examine the clarity and effectiveness of the statements and possibly their uniformity across departments. Statements from diverse disciplines that are presented in a common format and couched in similar language may
be easier for users to understand. This sort of uniformity should not, however, violate the integrity of the disciplinary content of the statements.
• Develop a reasonable time line. Like Rome, goals and objectives cannot be defined and assessment research cannot be designed in a day. A department should allow sufficient time for people to develop commitment to the process, learn the skills necessary to the task, and engage in a thoughtful iterative process that can produce
high-quality results. Still, the department should establish a firm timeline and hold people to it, or the process may extend forever.
• Ensure that there is broad involvement in the process. A key step in leading for change is for the chair to ensure that everyone is involved in the change process. Experience shows that involving people in the process of defining outcomes produces better results than if the department chair or a committee alone writes them. Involvement in designing the assessment plan has a similar effect.
Actively involving people at many points can provide an opportunity to develop a sense of community', empowerment, and leadership throughout the department (Tichy, 1997). Involving everyone appropriately in the process will go far toward ensuring faculty commitment to using the goals and objectives as well as student willingness to participate in assessment and do their best. Although it may seem more efficient for the chair to write the department's outcome statements, excluding others from the process may lead to mere bureaucratic compliance with management dictate to use these statements. Furthermore, being involved in constructing the statements helps everyone more deeply