Originally posted on October 7, 2017, on LindaSuskie.com
One of the many things I’ve learned by watching Ken Burns’ series on Vietnam is that Defense Secretary Robert MacNamara was a data geek. A former Ford Motor Company executive, he routinely asked for all kinds of data. Sounds great, but there were two (literally) fatal flaws with his approach to assessment.
First, MacNamara asked for data on virtually anything measurable, compelling staff to spend countless hours filling binders with all kinds of metrics—too much data for anyone to absorb. And I wonder what his staff could have accomplished had they not been forced to spend so much time on data collection.
And MacNamara asked for the wrong data. He wanted to track progress in winning the war, but he focused on the wrong measures: body counts, weapons captured. He apparently didn’t have a clear sense of exactly what it would mean to win this war and measure progress toward that end. I’m not a military scientist, but I’d bet that more important measures would have included the attitudes of Vietnam’s citizens and the capacity of the South Vietnamese government to deal with insurgents on its own.
There are three important lessons here for us. First, worthwhile assessment requires a clear goal. I often compare teaching to taking our students on a journey. Our learning goal is where we want them to be at the end of the learning experience (be it a course, program, degree, or co-curricular experience).
Second, worthwhile assessment measures track progress toward that destination. Are our students making adequate progress along their journey? Are they reaching the destination on time?
Third, assessment should be limited—just enough information to help us decide if students are reaching the destination on time and, if not, what we might to do help them on their journey. Assessment should never take so much time that it detracts from the far more important work of helping students learn.