Yet Another Whine about a Report Card

by emptywheel

No, seriously. The GAO's report on DHS is really important evidence that Bush has done very little to make this country more safe. But I'm most struck by the fact that the DHS people quoted are making exactly the same complaint the military did last week, when GAO reported that Iraq has met few of its benchmarks (for the record, DHS seems to be doing somewhat better than Iraq, making at least moderate progress in 6 of 14 benchmarks, whereas Iraq has made at least moderate progress in 7 of 18.

Then again, Iraq has a civil war raging

Both agencies, however, are complaining that the GAO is being unfair because it dares to give failing grades, because it refused the change failing grades, and because it used outdated reports largely because the agency in question wouldn't give GAO the current ones. Here's the DHS hack:

DHS Undersecretary for Management Paul A. Schneider said that the GAO should have graded the department higher on 42 of 171 directives. The GAO relied on a flawed methodology that "fails to accurately reflect the Department's progress in many specific program areas," he said in a formal 42-page response.

Schneider also said investigators relied on outdated reports, applied vague, shifting and inconsistent grading standards, and set up an unfair, "pass-fail" approach to assessing a spectrum of progress that should be expected to take many years.

"The GAO Report treats all of the performance expectations as if they were of equal significance," Schneider said. "In contrast, the Department uses a risk-based approach to consider its overall priorities," adding that the DHS has met 37 of 50 objectives in securing transportation modes, which were targeted in the 2001 attacks.

And here's the Administration on its Iraq benchmarks.

Stung by the bleak findings of a congressional audit of progress in Iraq, the Pentagon has asked that some of the negative assessments be revised, a military spokesman said Thursday.

[snip]

At the White House, officials argued that the GAO report, which was required by legislation President Bush signed last spring, was unrealistic because it assigned ``pass or fail'' grades to each benchmark, rather than assessing whether the Iraqis have made progress toward reaching the benchmark goals.

"A bar was set so high, that it was almost not to be able to be met,'' White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said.

I've said this before. But these adults are members of the same party that has been crowing over the importance of forcing our school children and our schools to receive failing grades, if they in fact fail. But every time "teacher" gives them a failing grade, it's always teacher's fault.

Pathetic.

Comments

[Jane S.]

It wasn't enough that the Bushies are making our children pay for their war; he had to ruin their schools as well by converting the curriculum to "skill and drill".

[mighty mouse]

Anyway to argue that DHS move into Department of Ed and take on NCLB benchmarks--which truly are unrealistic and unfair. NCLB is a quintessential flawed methodology, after all.

[janinsanfran]

After a lifetime post-academia, for her own reasons, my partner has returned to education and ended up teaching in a moderately selective, academically respectable university.

At the end of every semester, she posts the students' grades -- and waits in anticipation of the deluge: whining emails asking her to raise their marks. She's not hard on them; if they manage to complete their homework and write a few pages more or less on topic they can pass her class. If they actually engage with the subject matter and do those things, they can get Bs and sometimes As. But some fraction of the class always feels that by complaining they can get their grades raised.

Is this what students learn these days -- squeak away and you'll change the assessment? Do they then go work for the Bushies?

[Jane S.]

Janinsanfran: your partner's students may have only had NCLB for a small fraction of their public school career. Imagine these poor NCLB kids who will have their whole education tainted by this monster. They won't know how to think critically or analyze because teachers are forced to spend most of the day drilling them for the NCLB state tests. My daughter just started 2nd grade, they've been preparing her for our state's 3rd grade test since she was in Kindergarten. So I'm afraid my point is that it will get worse before it gets better--the ones whining about their grades may look downright academic compared to the ones that Bush is determined not to leave behind.

[orionATL]

jane s.

yes,

it's "skill and drill" at all levels for all types of children.

that's what happens when an education "reform" bill is intended to look good and sound good, rather than do good.

[Jane S.]

orionATL--it is really heartbreaking when your kid ends up a victim. But at home, she reads/and has been read Tolkien, Lewis, Dahl, Rowling, and countless others. I try to remain positive that I can subvert the public school stupidity...