FINAL COURSE REPORT - INFORMATION REPORTING, REPORTS, AND REQUIREMENTS NO. 26 4-22 APRIL 1960

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 02317793
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 28, 2022
• Document Release Date: September 19, 2018
• Case Number: F-2017-01972
• Publication Date: May 12, 1960

'STANDARD FORM NO, 64
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Office Memorandum � UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT
TO Chief, Operations School DATE: 12 May 1960
VIA Chief, Headquarters Training
FROM : Chief Instructor, Information Reporting,
Reports, and Requirements
SUBJECT: Final Course Report -
Information Reporting, Reports, and Requirements No. 26
4-22 April 1960
Synopsis
1. Contrary to what has often been the case in the past, there
were no last-minute cancellations of registration in Information
Reporting, Reports, and Requirements Number 26, running 4-22 April
1960. In fact, there were three added registrations after the list
of students had been delivered from the registrar's office. The final
number enrolled was 13 students. Only one of them left before the end
of the course, who was withdrawn by her desk
on 15 April A check with
established the necessity
for her withdrawa e a succe s pleted the first two weeks
of the prescribed training.
2. The class reverted to an earlier pattern of division as between
women and men; ten women were in attendance and only three men. Ten
students, nine women and one man, were wholly or partially in reports
or headed for duty as reports officers. Two of the men were going to
the field, where one was to be a case officer almost wholly responsible
for his own information reporting and the other was to do counter-
intelligence reporting primarily. Three of the women were headed for
immediate field assignments, including at least some duties in the
preparation of finished information reports. One woman was a covert-
action operations officer. Six different area divisions were represented
in the class: five students from RE; two from WH; and one each from WE,
EE, FE, and SR. One student came from OTB_PDartAnnrrai_FILD-1n'ht
K .* vp1pvsnt 'tin mention here that although
telephoned for help in filling needs for tra ned
reports officers in the Africa division, the division has not enrolled any-
body for training in IRRR during 1959-1960. The class as a whole was a
moderately young one, ages ranging from 23 to 47 years, with an average
age of about 31 years. The average grade was lower than usual, GS-7,
with a spread of from GS-4 to GS-12. This unusually low average grade,
however, was coupled with a class rating for performance that is probably
the best in the history of the course. The class roster and data on
individuals follows.
YOB Na ;7-07 - . F1.1- NO. DOC. NO. NO CTMNGE
IN CLAr:31 IDECLI:;:-.; 1 ;47:,.-; -7;L) 11,: TS S IET. wa.r.zz
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REV CLASS C- ILEW COOED. AUTH: HH 70-3
COJFIUE1ThAL
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3. The class as a whole was characterized by its mature steadiness
in doing its work, by its receptivity to material placed before it, and by
its extraordinarily high level of performance. During the three weeks of
instruction, no student was absent; only two students were tardy, and theg\
only occasionally and not when the tardiness interrupted speakers. There ,
was not a day in which some students or other were not at their typewriters
or reading by 0800 hours and still working at 1800 hours. The group's
receptivity to instruction was evident in its questioning guest speakers,
in some cases to the point of exhausting either the supply of information,
the time available, or the speaker; They:were persistent, too, in getting
at the thinking behind, the why's of patterns of procedures, that were
presented.
Student Performance
4. Out of the 42 ratings of performance given members of the class,
28 were of excellent, 20 were of satisfactory, 3 were of poor) and 1 was
of superior. The ratings were in four areas of performance: qualitative
and quantitative production of reports, requirements performance, editorial
performance, and reporting (including active collection of information)
performance. Probably this is the highest number of excellents earned by
a class in the course.
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5. Four
(b)(3)
students - and
were rated excellent in all phases of performance; a fifth,
with one superior to balance one satisfactory, averaged
(b)(3)
excellent.
With one exception, all these students were university or
college graduates;
commercial
was a graduate only of high school, a
(b)(3)
(h)(3)
course at that. and presented an
picture of interesting contrasts: has an A.B.
achievement
(b)(3)
Vassar College and only a few weeks of experience in the
degree
Agency;
but 17
om
(b)(3)
has not even an academic secondary-school education
years o on-the-job education in the Agency and its predecessors.
This is a real example of what can be done to substitute practical
experience for formal education and also what the substitution costs
in time to arrive at a comparable goal of achievement. Another student,
with one year of college, had only one rating, satisfactory
in editorial performance, below excellent. All three of the relatively
poor students had university or college degrees.
6. In the ordinary sense of the term, there were no troublesome
students in the class. With s of �or in requirements performance
and in editorial performance, showed the lowest level of
achievement. Her poor showing came no as the result of not trying;
she was one of the most steadily industrious, punctual, and pleasant
students in the class. Her trouble was simply that she could not
communicate clearly what knowledge she possessed, and too often the
knowledge itself was shaky as the result of her failures in understanding.
Invariably inability Co write coherently is hooked up with hazy thinking.
When it is considered that previously she had been subject to 4o hours of
training in Information Reports Familiarization, the chances of ever
making a sound reports officer of her are dim to say the least. The
other student with a poor rating, in requirements performance, on her
record was She was the only one in the class to show lack (b)(3)
of punctuality except when she returned too promptly from an assignment
with the assignment half-done. Too big a share of her time nto
sitting at her work table staring off into space. Although (b)(3)
performance was rated satisfactory, every job that he did he had to o
a second time before it was acceptable; re-doing involved not only re-
writing reports but filling gaps in collected informiatinn. To begin with,
despite a university degree with a major in English, just (b)(3)
could not write coherently. In the second place, although the strain
of his effort to understand an assignment would show in the lines of
concentration in his face and in the tense eagerness to be on his way,
what he came back with always indicated at least only a partial under-
standing of the problem. With an hour or two of tutoring on the product
of the first attempt, he would willingly do the whole job again by
meticulously correcting every error pointed out to him in his copy and
by rechecking all details of his information-collection operation.
Invariably his second try would be satisfactory, and on the basis of
his willingness and of his final achievement, albeit delayed, he was
rated as, by and large, satisfactory in performance. Such loss of time
at arriving at a satisfactory product) however, might well be intolerable
in a field assignment.
(b)(3)
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(b)(3)
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7. With reasonable assurety it can be said that Jhad the
highest potential in the class and that he was the only student who did not
fulfill his potential. Not that his performance in general was not highly
satisfactory; it was. Had he really concentrated his efforts on the job at
hand, though, his performance could well have been excellent in every phase.
It would seem that his primary interest is in the law and that his work with
the Agency is a means of support while he is attending Georgetown University,
where he is a second-year law student. It would also seem the chief instructor
in IRRR made a mistake in telling when sought the information
at the end of the first week that generally he was doing excellent work.
apparently had been notified by the panel having in hand his promotion
that it would hold the promotion in abeyance until he had satisfactorily
completed a course in reporting since that was the direction his Agency career
seemed to be taking. With what the chief instructor had told him as insurance,
under the common student belief that an excellent start automatically means an
excellent ending, from then on lost some of the drive that early had
evident. In fact, on the basis of a vocal report to the panel after
had satisfactorily comple the course the chairman said that
promotion was assured. editorial performance was
limited to a mere satisfactory one by his insistance on writing at the level
of a law bulletin - not a high level in matters of conciseness and exactness
of expression - to the staff of which he had been elected as a law-student
honor. Whatever the cause for not having achieved the performance level of
which he was capable, however, his not having done so made him a difficult
student. In teaching of any sort, the real failure always lies in not getting
out of the gifted student his best, whether the fault be with circumstances,
the student himself, or the teacher.
Student Comments
8. As has been practice in the course almost from its beginning,
students were required to write a final report on what information of
particular value to them they had collected during the three weeks of
instruction and practice. Whatever information they have available in
their heads, in their reading kits, or in their notebooks they are free
to use. They write against the pressure of a three-hour deadline. Not
only is the exercise a practical one in the preparation of an information
report, but it is a realistic estimate of the students' ability to collect
information, particularly through the talk of sources and through reading.
Subjective reactions are required in a comment section of the report. Here
are some of the reactions that may have significance.
" f a more formal lecture on the
and the CRITIC system could be included in the course, it
wo increase the students' knowledge of what is included in the
communication field of reports. . . . As a whole, the course
thoroughly explained the role of reports work in the intelligence
field. . . . The collection assignments were the most valuable."
- 4 -
(b)(3',
(b)(3)
(b)(3)
(b)(3)
(b)(3)
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"It is hard to set dawn on paper the things that the student
learned by carrying out information collection assignments, but he
did learn about some of the difficulties involved and about the
effort that must be spent in the construction of an objective
report. He did learn also that the qualities and skills set forth
in the course are necessary for the development of what he now
understands to be a good reporter."
"I found all aspects of the course, with the possible exception
of the information on technical collection, helpful. . .Most
important of all, I have some basis to work on in improving reporting
of my own project."
"By far most useful to source 5tudeng was the training and the
guidance received in methods of effective writing."
"Especially important is the 'field experience' of collecting
information that is. then reported on. The tying together of all the
factors that make up information collection and reporting is a
thorough way of presenting a clear-cut picture of the various processes
of the intelligence community and the way in which it works."
"The instruction was helpful in providing information on reporting
qualifications, organization, correct procedures, and collecting and
communicating information in accordance with requirements. The
practice in collecting information and writing reports was extremely
useful."
"The operations officer as a collector and reporter of information
is the part of the IRRR course that I think will do me the most good."
Conclusions and Recommendations
9. The addition of a lecture on the
and on CRITIC suggested by one of the students seems worth trying. If
a lecture is included in the next running of the course, the chief of
has agreed to prepare and to give it.
such
10. It is recommended that no immediate successor as an instructor be
appointed vice who is retiring from the Agency as of 20 May
1960. Unless the next class, starting 6 June, is a large group, one
instructor, with the_help_of_guest speakers, can adequately handle the full
lecture load. Since never was very active or dependable in working
with the students in the preparation of CS reports in the laboratory, his
services there will be missed little if at all.
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CONFIDENTIAL
11. It would seem desirable to delay the appointment of a new
instructor until a hard-headed, energetic, enthusiastic man, who can
give himself whole-heartedly to working with students, can be found:
He needs to be a working teacher, not a talking one - one lean in the
hams with no tendency to broaden them by spreading them over the full butt
area of a tilted armchair with cushions in both the seat and the back.
Such teachers are hard to find, but even in bureaucracies they do exist
if they can be caught young enough) in spirit not in years, not to have
deteriorated into placidity as insurance for security. In the case at
hand) it is much easier for one man to carry the full load of instruction
than to be hampered by a helper who, young or old in years, has none of
the true teaching drive. Since the classes in the IRRR course have
consistently contained more women than men, a female instructor is likely
not to be effective in it; in fact, women are rarely wholly effective in
teaching men either. Not discrimination but experience would dictate the
appointment of a man.
12. An often made recommendation that needs to be repeated again is
for better classroom housekeeping so that students have at least a fairly
clean place in which to work.
13. A recommendation would seem to be in order, too, that if the
Africa division calls on to supply it with trained reports
officers that could well take steps to encourage the enrollment
of at least a few Africa division prospects as students in IRRR.
CONFIDENTIAL
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