Data-Driven Readability Assessments of Jesuit Business Schools' Mission Statements

Abstract

In this chapter, the author provides quantitative readability assessments of mission statements belonging to collegiate business schools and programs within the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU). These assessments can help higher education's internal stakeholders discern the skill, ability, and effort required for various audiences to read and understand a given mission statement. The author finds that the institutions vary somewhat in how well they articulate their chosen “enduring statement of purpose” for public engagement in terms of tone, gender, reading ease, and other factors. Readability measures are presented for business schools and programs for which a mission statement could be located. These measures include, for example, word count, syllable count, grade level, and a variety of readability indices. This chapter's contents may be useful to business schools planning to develop, review, or revise their mission statement for internal and external audience engagement.