[599] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
RBA Program - Still No Evaluation Process?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Chris Rezek)
Wed May 9 21:00:38 2001
Message-Id: <200105100059.UAA05528@melbourne-city-street.mit.edu>
Date: Wed, 09 May 2001 21:02:45 -0400
To: redwine@MIT.EDU, larryben@MIT.EDU, cstewart@MIT.EDU, ninadm@MIT.EDU,
raa@MIT.EDU, mcain@MIT.EDU, kellyc@MIT.EDU, rgresh@MIT.EDU
From: Chris Rezek <crezek@alum.mit.edu>
Cc: mit-talk@MIT.EDU
Mime-Version: 1.0
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Hello again,
[I mentioned in the first paragraph of my 'In Defense of Affirmative
Action' email that I was going to send an email about the evaluation
criteria and process for the Residence Based Advising program. Since the
list collective seems to be heading back towards MIT-oriented topics I
thought I would send the email about the RBA program now.]
Several weeks have passed since I first asked about how the RBA program
would be evaluated. I have strongly resisted the urge to walk into the
offices of people I know and find out the behind-the-scenes story because I
believe the information should be publicly available. So far I have
received one reply from Rick Gresh (thank you Rick!) about how the student
governments would be consulted and how open forums would be held. This is
a huge step forward compared to the way many (but not all) 'pilot' programs
have been handled in the past.
And yet - I am concerned (and I believe you should be concerned) because
there seem to be no official goals for the program and no evaluation
process involving controls. In addition it seems uncertain who is in
charge of the program and when the decision will be made to make the
program universal or not.
And so my questions are, again:
* what are the goals of the RBA program?
* what is the evaluation process for the RBA program?
* who is in charge of the RBA program? (I think this is Professor Robert
Redwine)
* when will the evaluation process conclude and the implementation (or
non-implementation) begin?
The answers to these questions could be short, and they could be long.
Maybe answers for them currently don't exist - part of my concern is that
the answers *don't* yet exist. That's partly why I ask them. And I ask
them publicly because the information should be public.
Why is having a real evaluation process important? Because if there are no
goals and no data about how well different pilots have met those goals,
then the decisions to continue or stop or change the program are completely
personal and political. If neither exist the decisions-making process is
opaque and it is difficult to endorse or criticize in a rational way. And
since the power students have at MIT is primarily the power of persuasion,
the non-existence of information weakens the ability of students to argue
for what is best for them.
Imagine of the freshmen-on-campus decision had been preceded by several
years of real study of how different living environments affect the lives
of students instead of by a year or so of disjointed lobbying and editorial
reading. Imagine if the committee reviewing P/NR had been using detailed
data about freshman/sophomore year performance instead of basic aggregate
statistics and the personal experiences and anecdotes of the committee
members.
I don't know what such studies would have shown (though I'm sure we all
have our intuitions) but I do know that if there was a common set of useful
data, the discussions on those topics would have been more fruitful and
there would be been less distrust between the people involved. As a former
student advocate (and a current alumni advocate) I have seen the power and
weaknesses that come from a shared data set. Better data favors (not
surprisingly) better conclusions that better serve the interests of MIT's
students and faculty.
With the RBA program we have a chance (and I thought we already had a
commitment from the administration) to do a real study of the different
pilots (and existing situations) before the Institute was committed one way
or the other. I hope to hear from Professor Robert Redwine (or whoever
*is* in charge) that a real evaluation process will precede any final
decisions on the matter and also what that process will be.
Chris
