FINAL COURSE REPORT-INFORMATION REPORTING, REPORTS, AND REQUIREMENTS NO. 27, 6-24 JUNE 1960

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 02317791
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 28, 2022
• Document Release Date: September 19, 2018
• Case Number: F-2017-01972
• Publication Date: July 5, 1960

ST1NDARD FORM NO. 64
TiAL
Office Memorandum � UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT
TO
FROM :
SUBJECT:
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Chief, Operations School
Chief Instructor, Information Reporting,
Reports, and Requirements
Final Course Report - Information Reporting,
Reports, and Requirements No. 27,
6-24 June 1960
DATE: 5 July 1960
Synopsis
1. Although nine students were registered for Information
Reporting, Reports) and Requirements Number 27. tFln attended the
class. The tenth student was' ] who already was
enrolled in IRRR as a tutorial student. She is taking training beyond
that obtained in the regular IRRR class.
2. Of the ten students attending the class, four were men. Two
men and one woman had assignments or prospective assignments primarily
in operations; in the woman's case consideration was being given to a
change into reports. The others were headed for assignments as reports
officers, only two of them in the field. Five area divisions, one less
than in the preceding class, enrolled students. VE� as usual, led in
enrollments with three; WH and WE followed with two each; and FE and IO
brought up the rear with one each. Jhas been working on SR
material, and the chance is good of her getting an assignment as a reports
officer there. Again no student came from the Africa division. In respect
to years, the class was one of unPBual maturity;-The averEge�aga of students
was 36 years. Maturity of performance, unless one bases judgment on creak-
ing decrepitude, did not measure pp to that of years. More on that topic
will came later. The age spread was from 25 to 54 years. The average
GS grade of 8 was pp one step over that of the preceding class, a class
much higher in the level of performance. The roster of class number 27
and data on individual members follows.
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REV CLASS cnREV COORD�__ RUTH: RR 70-3
(b)(3)
(b)(3)
(b)(1)
(b)(3)
CritiFfiATIAi
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Now
(b)(1)
(b)(3)
3. The early attitude of the class as a whole was one of bored
indifference to instruction. During the first day of the session, there
was not a perceptible spark in the whole group. They Just sat, evidently
expecting to absorb information without effort. In answer to an ultimatum
served on them between 0830 and 0900 hours on the second day either actively
to start collecting and recording course substance for a final report or
suffer the consequences of a low rating, about half the class came awake.
Others were snapped out of their lethargy by individual warnings. Two,
though, never did become productively active - one because of semicovered
indolence and the other because of inability to understand. As the course
progressed, the awakened eight showed increasing receptivity by participation
in class discussions and by asking questions of lecturers. In punctuality
and in regularity of attendance, however, the class as a whole came up
with a patchy record.
Student Performance
4. A breakdown of the 40 ratings given the class shows 1 of them to
have been superior, 17 of them to have been excellent, 14 of them to have
been satisfactory, 5 of them to have been failing and three of them to have
been poor. As a matter of fact, on the formal student-evaluation forms,
four of the failures were not recorded except as almost total lack of
performance that could be evaluated. Incidentally, too, at least two of
the excellents came not from the students' working to near capacity but
from natural editorial gifts. Class number 26 had earned the high number
of excellents; class number 27 earned perhaps the high number of poors and
failures. The four areas of performance rated were production, requirements,
editing, and reporting.
5. Four students - and
- were rated excellent in all performance, in
reporting, including the collection of information, did superior work.
Her final course report was among the best yet produced in completeness
of coverage, understanding of substance, appropriate organization, and
effectiveness of expression; the test was a searching one of her ability
to collect information over a fairly extended period of time with the
understandirta necessary to its communication. Working quietly and steadily,
completely fulfilled the promise of an earlier test made of
his ability to carry through a reporting assignment from the collection of
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(b)(3)
(b)(3)
(b)(3)
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information to organizing it and expressing it suitably. The preliminary
test had been made at the request of the NE chief of reports and require-
ments before was put to work in reports and then entered in (b)(3)
the IRRR course. who had received some preliminary tutorial (b)(3)
training, in all respects kept to the high level of performance on which
she had started. Her best effort was a steadily sustained one on putting
long and complicated SR raw reports into finished form. Since she may be
assigned as a reports officer to SR, the work has been practical for her
and useful for the chief reports officer of that division. (b)(3)
starting day in the IRRR class was her starting day in the Agency. Her
assignment calls for her going with her husband as a contract (W(1)
employee to put into final form information reports. When one considers (b)(3)
that in competition with a senior operations officer of 12 years' service
in the Agency, achieved an over-all higher level of performance (b)(3)
one realizes what remarkable progress she made. She entered the class
with no knowledge of CS reports; she left it able to prepare effective
finished reports and intelligence cables. Furthermore, she was well on
her way to developing sound judgment in the appraisal of information
values. After the general bad start of the class, the progress of these
four members is a real achievement, both from their point of view and
the instructor's.
6. It was unusual to have two students in an IRRR class whose
performance was rated as generally unsatisfactory. They were not
troublesome in the sense of making nuisances of themselves. Although
dozed through many a lecture or dreamily visited far lands, (b)(3)
she did so unobtrusively and to the annoyance of no one but the speaker
who, facing her, could not help noticing his lack of effectiveness in
holding her attention. She just was not interested in learning; ergo,
she did not learn. The problem was as. simple as that. Obviouslv too,
she was not interested in working either. On the other hand, (b)C31
worked hard and long; she missed no time from class, and she (b)(3)
worked in the laboratory after hours and on week ends. Despite all her
work, though, achievement WWI so negligible as to make performance
unratable. First, the substance of the course was to a large extent
incomprehensible to her. Second, although English may be her native
tongue and she may be fluent in Spanish, her English is larded with
illiteracies. She consistently wrote subordinate clauses as sentences.
She failed to distinguish between such words as site and cite, princiRal
and principle, navel and naval, overtly and overly, there and thier Leig,
and its and it's. Often her subjects and verbs did not agree in number.
A member of her Career Service panel said that she had been entered in
the course as an experiment in what could be done in making a reports
officer of her. He was told that the experiment had failed. In
education of any sort, miracles do not happen, particularly in raising
a 54-year-old woman's level of comprehension appreciably and erasing
patterns of illiteracies deeply engraved by the years. Making an
acceptable reports officer out of even with the constant (b)(3)
help of her labors, would be a miracle indeed.
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7. was the second student in two successive classes
who made no strong effort to realize her full potential, which was
unusually high. Apparently as an operations officer with not too much
to do and plenty of time in which to do it, her work habits have become
leisurely. That work pattern carried over into the IRRR class. Her
comings and goings were too largely a matter of the pressures of personal
business instead of Agency duties, with the result that her attendance
record was shaky and her tardiness record consistent. Obviously she
did not collect the knowledge of course substance that she should have.
In assignments requiring steady application and fairly long concentration,
the resulting reports generally showed a steady decline through the later
stages until the collapse came at the end. In at least two reports, however,
one of them the final one on the course, did work to capacity; (b)(3)
they were excellent products_in�substance, in organization, and in expression. (b)p)
When she really tried, wrote with rare effectiveness. If she
wanted to, and could, regain a sense of urgency in going all out in a drive
to do a job, she no doUbt could become a top-flight reports and requirements
officer. To an instructor, it brings a sense of failure to see potentials
falling off and skills withering instead of growing.
Student Comments
8. In final reports made of information on the course substance
collected during the three weeks, student reactions are required in a
comment section. Some made by this class that may be significant follow.
"I believe I am a much more valuable person to the Agency after
having been a student for the past three weeks."
"Since I had no knowledge of the organization of this Agency or
of its regulations and procedures when I entered the class, the
instruction has been invaluable to me. I am amazed at the amount
of material covered in three weeks. I feel that it would have
taken me many months to learn these things on the job; and in
all probability I would never haVe had another opportunity to
learn some of them."
"Perhaps of greatest interest in the long run was the renewed
awareness I gained of the fact that production of information
and intelligence, and not merely the collection or the establish-
ment of access in order to collect, is the real objective of the
Fl function."
"This course has been most useful in not only teaching the writer
5f this reporg to write more effectively but also in helping
him to learn a great deal about how operations should be conducted
for maximum productiveness."
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(b)(3)
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"One of the most valuable parts of the IRRR course is sending
out students on actual reporting assignments. This is the
only way that they can begin to realize the difficulties
involved in the reporting process and be aware of the high
level of skill necessary to be a good reporter. They learn
to appreciate the problems that face reporters and to realize
the importance of adequate direction in the assignment of a
reporting job."
"I found the experience and knowledge gained from the course
to be of great value to me in my future career."
"The three-weeks length of the course is long enough to present
the topical material, but the period of time available within
the three weeks for actual collection and reporting of information
under guidance seems short. This is the most important part of
the course and for many students represents the first opportunity
to write with informed supervision."
Conclusions and Recommendations
9. The course is on the right track. It will be noticed that
consistently running through student comments on it is emphasis not
on entertainment valves, interest, effectiveness of presentation, and
such, but on its usefulness to the student in increasing his skills and
in furthering his career. With increase in practicable skills will come
improvement in the intelligence information product-the purpose for which
the course was developed. To further the practicality of the course, in
line with many student suggestions, the attempt will be continued to
limit presentation of substance to the first week and increase to two
weeks the amount of time for actual collection of information and its
organization and expression within the framework of official practices
in format.
10. It ta rPeommendpa that presentation of the
handling of the intelligence cable and
the TD report, given for the first time to this class, be retained.
In thoroughness, in clarity, and in effective speaking, it rated high
among talks given in the course.
11. The recommendation for appointment of another instructor in
the IRRR course has changed in tone since the report on the 26th class.
The real need is now apparent for a replacement before the first autumn
class. Being tied down completely for three weeks at a stretch reduces
too sharply the over-all effectiveness of a single instructor. There is
no change in attitude toward the desirability of a youthfully flexible
and energetic man.
Pnurinriiin A I
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