This story is told about an incoming parent who went to visit her child's new school. In meeting with one of the district's most competent administrators, the parent was surprised to hear a good deal of local terminology, jargon, and acronyms she did not understand. She was told about the importance of SOLs, the IB program, standards in CCPS, the SIP program, SWOL, SOA, SACS, and the school system's CUBE data management system. After a few minutes, the parent said, "I have a Master's degree in linguistics, have traveled extensively on four continents, and am fluent in Spanish, French, and English, but I haven't a clue what you are talking about!"

The problem of unreasonable jargon in organizations may have best been exemplified over three decades ago by the highly-successful former CEO of IBM Corporation, Thomas Watson, Jr. A memo from Watson chastising his 300,000+ employees for a "foreign language creeping into many presentations" appears as Appendix G.

The site visit team strongly encourages the staff, particularly administrators in the Chesterfield County School District, to give serious consideration to the value of understandable language in communication with students, parents, constituents, and each other. The value of what one says or writes is only as good as the ability of the listener or reader to decipher the message.