The Heilmeier Catechism

I’m fully aware of the utility of jargon in writing a business case, it lets me skip over the difficult, the warts, and the questionable. I wonder if there’s a correlation between failed projects and how jargon heavy the initiation is?

I also really like thinking about milestones as exam points. Calling them exams for success more directly gets at the point- to check in and course correct.

> What are you trying to do? Articulate your objectives using absolutely no jargon.

I'm trying to improve reading skills for all students.

> How is it done today, and what are the limits of current practice?

Currently, students are grouped by ability (”reading level") for reading instruction. This means that students who are considered below grade level are rarely exposed texts at grade-level complexity.

> What is new in your approach and why do you think it will be successful?

Instead of grouping students by ability, I will create mixed-ability student groups to read grade-level texts with all students. I will provide differentiated support for students who cannot yet read selected texts independently. This approach is supported by Young's (2022) research, which detailed greater reading level gains for emerging readers.

> Who cares? If you are successful, what difference will it make?

Students who are considered below grade level in reading will show increased gains compared to the previous approach.

> What are the risks?

This approach requires more reading instruction expertise from teachers. Teachers who are unable to adequately support below-grade-level readers risk further delaying these readers' progress. Because this is a change to widespread and currently accepted instructional practices, it is likely that many teachers and parents will resist changes to the program, either explicitly or by falling back to previous practices.

> How much will it cost?

The only significant cost is in teacher professional development, which I estimate to be $X for the first academic year and $Y in subsequent years.

> How long will it take?

The new approach will be rolled out within the first 2 months of the school year, with ongoing professional development throughout the year.

> What are the mid-term and final “exams” to check for success?

We will continue to rely on the same reading assessments we have been using. We will also conduct qualitative evaluations of teachers' and students' attitudes toward the program in November, February, and June.

I think this is very important, but I have seldom seen it in action. I tend to run into jargonauts, everywhere.

If you're interested in how the modern Agency functions, I'd suggest reading The DARPA Model for Transformative Technologies.

It describes some of the typical trends in our time: contracts too often go to entrenched players and primes, rather than startups as primes due to technical merit rather than past performance and relationships. DARPA personnel reaching out from anonymous mailboxes post-RFI submission, asking if your team has TS/Sci clearance. (No answer if it's not a complete 100% yes.) And landlordism: extracting value from an existing system rather than seeding many new technologies.

However, there is still nothing like DARPA, despite its many problems. DIU is more for near-term innovation, and had its budget cut 20% just now. AFRL, AFWERX, Army SBIR/STTR, and so on, are all critical but not built to prevent technological surprise. Thank your lucky stars we have DARPA still up and running after so many decades.