Editor's Notebook

This was a good question, one whose answer would surely be of interest to the six agencies assigned C or C- (the lowest grade) in the Government Executive-Syracuse project, which rated the management of 15 federal agencies. Ingraham replied that the days when a "gentleman's C" was acceptable are gone-implying that the grade came pretty close to failing.

So what does a B mean? Well, in my day that was a pretty good grade. I can't remember any of my friends arguing that a B was demeaning. But nowadays, if the professor rules that a C is cause to hang one's head low, then a B probably isn't enough to make one hold it high.

One view of this came from Office of Management and Budget Deputy Director G. Edward DeSeve, in response to a question from The Washington Post. He told the Post that the GPP rankings produced an overall average of about a B and that this "says that the government has competent management."

Maybe DeSeve meant to say that government has competent managers, I speculated a day later to a Brookings Institution gathering of 70 federal managers from all across the government. Management might not rate so high, I suggested, and then I asked the crowd for a show of hands to see how many would give their management systems a B or better. Just three hands were raised.

So I couldn't resist a one-liner: "We've only done this once, but already we have grade inflation." This bit of irreverence got a chuckle, perhaps because there's some truth in it. In the good old days you'd be sure to find a D or worse in most any group of test-takers . . . but not today.

USA Today on Feb. 2 quoted one Timothy Clark, editor of "Government Magazine," as saying: "Federal management on average is mediocre, but we're getting what we pay for." I suppose I could deny that was me speaking at the GPP press conference. But instead, I'll note that I was characterizing management, not managers, in that sound bite. I added that management is mediocre because political authorities have little interest in paying for the people, training, financial and technology systems, and top-drawer management consulting that large private businesses routinely employ.

Let's get back to the grades. Is a B mediocre? If so, my Brookings audience thinks their agencies' systems are worse than that. To date, agencies haven't protested that their grades are too low. One constructive response came from the Patent and Trademark Office, whose average grade was B-. Acting Commissioner Q. Todd Dickinson issued a press release noting substantial recent progress in labor relations and information technology management, two areas in which the agency had been assigned C's by the GPP. So perhaps the grades, inflated or not, are working by bringing attention to management deficiencies and improvements.