I APPRECIATE YOUR INVITATION TO COMMENT ON THE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-06365A001000050010-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 23, 2000
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: September 13, 1966
• Content Type: LETTER

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13 September 1966
,
developing criteria "to present solutions to training
methods and materials available to meet these needs
.
S
Dear l
/
E I i \r7-V,,>'1
I appreciate your invitation to comment on the
outline of your "Preliminary Report" to.the DDS on
the work of the. Instructional Systems Study Group.
Following are my reactions. Although most are re-
actions which merely reflect my on need for clarifi-
cations one or two are of potentially basic importance.
So let me begin with these.
support the. work of the ISSG. Should a I jt . there be a
more ex licit " tie-in' between your report and the work STATINTL
of The objectives listed in the Montract STATINTL
"
"
Relation or the report to the contract. The
can roc exists solely, as its to
ins u e
analyzing
current training programs, determin-
ing training objectives desired bar the school", analyz-
ing student:; abilities and needs, determining the value"
of present methods to meet training needs, surveying the
explicit I ,should think your report might include a STATINTL
statement of what they ere or have become,, as a result
of your deliberations with The main thrust of the
work of the XSSG, it seems to me,, must either be based
on these, objectives, or suitable modifications of them.
Only in. this way will we be able to evaluate the progress
Because these objectives are not elaborated, or made
needs", and ,reviewing current off-the-shelf material.
we fre a t , ng*. Perhaps,, for example, Ya"u will need more
time to complete the first stage of the work. I think
could begin with a statement of the roblft 'a brief
Lure of the final one. Perhaps thj 1' vurt,, for example. STATINTL
our objectives. I realize that this report is only a
preliminary one, but I feel it 'should contain the 'strut-
I ., " : review,ff what has been done so far est ablishtrtent of the
which, objective by objective.* you indicate the pro reds a..
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could state specifically how far along we are on each of
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Organization of the substantive part of the report.
Under your "substantive" section, which you call "possible
courses of action", you offer management a choice of courses
of action that they might take with respect to the use of
PI in the Agency, ranging on a rough continuum from no
action to potentially wide-spread use. Such an approach
seems to assume that management will be confronted with only
one or two decisions of relatively major significance. I
believe that we already have been given the green light to
explore new ways of teaching (principally, PI) and that we
should report facts, and expert judgments, regarding the
applicability of particular approaches to particular training
programs, objectives, or courses. As you suggest, cost
estimates should be a prominent part of such an analysis.
Go/no-go decisions would then be more realistic and meaning-
ful. With such an approach, desirable but non-existent pro-
grams could be suggested, including recombinations of existing
courses. In other words, such an approach should not limit
you to what already is ongoing in the way of Agency training,
sup estions regarding assum tions. It occurred to me
you Might wish to consider Including several other assump-
tions: that there will continue to be a shortage of quali-
fied instructors; that foreign language training is first
priority, with the other areas coming in the order in which
you have listed them in your section on possible courses of
action; that training is of particular importance to an in-
telligence agency, for which we cannot hire already competent
professionals; that high quality training is of special
importance to us, who have some critical responsibilities
involving the national security, e.g., the Cuban missile
crisis.
Miscellaneous suggestions.,, (1) Under section on assump-
tions, substitute "in assigning for "for use as" in paragraph
3. Also, insert "and will ado t them", following the word
technology in paragraph 4. 2 Among possible courses of
action, it seems to me important to make the point that we
should arrange for systematic follow-up of all changes recom-
mended, adopted, and introduced in training programs as a
result of the ISSG effort. This should mean the accumulation
of end-of-course and past-course performance with and without
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the change. This is looking beyond the objective of the
1SSG1 but it may not be too early to lay the groundwork
for a proper evaluation of the effectiveness of its work.
How otherwise are we to make soundly based decisions?
Jack
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