DANTES INFORMATION BULLETIN (1) JAN 2020

DIB

JAN

DANTES INFORMATION BULLETIN

2020

A Year in Review In this issue: 2019 Year in Review 2 Camp Simba Pilot Testing

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In Case You Missed It, Check out 2019 DIBs

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Hot News

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Troops to Teachers New Director Contact Information

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DANTES Information Bulletin

DANTES Sponsored Programs: A Year in Review Jeff Allen, Director, DANTES

W

e had another successful year of supporting the voluntary education (VolEd) community as it helps service members reach their education and career goals.

Together we helped service members enrolled in various VolEd programs. We want to say THANK YOU for all that you do throughout the year!

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In this issue, we will highlight some 2019 accomplishments.

These shared accomplishments were made possible by the dedication, innovation, and efforts of all the professional voluntary education personnel, Defense education institutional partners, national testing agencies, and postsecondary organizations that are a part of the VolEd enterprise.

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Year In Review

Here are some highlights of how DANTES and the services supported the warfighter for 2019: • Supported deployed warfighters and enhanced readiness by providing education programs in contingency areas in the Middle East, Southwest Asia and Africa. There were 6,399 service members enrolled in 8,182 college courses and received over 75,000 hours of education support services sharpening skills and enhancing lethality of the force.

• Collaborated with higher education associations, defense education partners and renewed five-year DoD Partnership Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) agreements with over 2,000 academic institutions to provide off-duty educational opportunities and post-secondary education access for service members.

• Completed 51 Military Training Evaluation Program reviews by the

DANTES Information Bulletin

American Council on Education, where 482 military courses and occupations were reviewed for college credit equivalency, generating 7,239 college credit recommendations, documented on the Joint Services Transcript (JST).

• Enabled 45,687 service members to complete over 70,000 exams based on prior learning experience, reducing degree completion time and avoiding over $28M in DoD tuition assistance costs by awarding college credits for testing.

• Partnered with 31 states implementing Troops to Teachers grants to enable the delivery of teacher credentialing and job placement services to service members and veterans, resulting in over 400 first year, full-time K-12 teachers placed in public schools and over 2,000 employed as full-time teachers substitute teachers, teacher assistants, para-professionals, or administrators for K-12 classrooms.

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The Year Ahead 2020 Activities and Events • Deliver a Professional Development Institute (PDI) to the DoD Voluntary Education workforce that aligns with ODASD Force Education and Training(FE&T) policy priorities in June 2020.

• Award of a modernized Military Training Evaluations Program contract to enable service members to continue to earn college credit recommendations for knowledge gained through military education, training and occupational experiences.

• Award of a modernized Academic Skills Training contract to help service members improve math and English skills for military advancement, qualification for reclassification or advance training, and college level course placement.

• Provide CLEP/DSST mobile testing opportunities at forward operating locations and provide Voluntary Education services for forwarddeployed service members.

2020 Deliverables/Goals • Support the Services’ needs and requirements to improve the educational levels of the force through a shared service delivery model reducing the cost and the administrative and regulatory burden on the Services.

• Be a trusted voluntary education enterprise provider of digital tools, resources, and professional development opportunities to ensure the continuation of education support services to military members.

• Be an agile and adaptive organization, improving continually as we support the DoD VolEd enterprise.

Thank you for all of the great work in 2019 and looking forward to all that we will accomplish together in 2020!

DANTES Information Bulletin

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Camp Simba Pilot Mobile Testing

Airmen and Soldiers deployed to Camp Simba, Kenya, participated in DANTES Credit-by-Exam pilot program, Dec. 13, 2019. DANTES European Advisor and Central Texas College staff administered CLEP/DSST exams during the 6-day event. The exams provided an opportunity for military members to use prior knowledge for college credit. (DoD photo by DoD Education Advisor, Mark Phelan)

Camp Simba Pilot Mobile Testing By: Erin Roberts CAMP SIMBA, Kenya – Deployed Airmen and Soldiers serving in Africa received some welcome visitors bearing early holiday gifts. A Defense Department (DoD) voluntary education (VolEd) team from the Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support (DANTES) and Central Texas College (CTC), based in Sembach and Kindsbach, Germany, brought computers, hardware and software necessary to provide a 6-day college credit-by-exam testing opportunity.

Education counseling and computer-based CLEP and DSST exams were the basis for the mobile test pilot held Dec. 12-17. Deployed service members have long-requested these education services in Forward Operating Locations (FOL), but due to technology and logistical challenges these types of exams have never been offered during assignments like this one before. “We are excited to see that technology has advanced to where this proof of concept was able to be successfully conducted,” says Jeff Allen, DANTES Director. “Innovative testing solutions like this pilot are important to support the warfighter’s educational needs around the world when operational commanders are requesting this type of support.”

seling and computer-based testing 22 hours a day during the event. A total of 38 Airmen and Soldiers took 78 exams funded by DANTES. The DANTES/CTC team overcame many challenges and achieved many successes throughout the visit. According to Mark Phelan, DANTES European Education Advisor, “One of the biggest challenges was meeting the demand for testing around the operational schedule of the Airmen and Soldiers at the FOL. We had to test around the clock to accommodate the shift work. Putting a full-time education counselor here isn’t possible, but now we know that sending a team in for a few days is definitely doable and desired.” Although Internet access was slow and there were electrical power issues, the testing infrastructure that the team brought worked as planned, and the proof of concept demonstrated that more testing events like this are foreseeable at FOLs in the future.

Phelan says that thanks to the Air Force and base leadership who supported this mobile testing event, service members around the world could see more opportunities like this in other austere locations in the coming year. These services help U.S. military members continue to work toward their educational goals while deployed to remote, logistically-challenged locations.

A team of two education specialists provided service Learn more about DANTES VolEd programs and members with an opportunity to gain college credit resources by visiting these websites: www.dantes. doded.mil and www.myvoled.com. using prior knowledge, experience, and training.

Service members participated in education counDANTES Information Bulletin

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In Cased You Missed The DIB The DIB is designed to keep VolEd professionals up-to-date on DANTES sponsored education programs. In case you missed an issue in 2019, here is a snap-shot of monthly DIB newsletters. Subscribe to the DIB for monthly updates at http://www.dantes.doded.mil/dib.html

College & Career Planning February 2019

Academic Skills January 2019

College Credit By Exam April 2019

JST Support Tools June 2019

Credit by Exam’s Team October 2019 DANTES Information Bulletin

College Admissions Exams March 2019

VolEd PDI Training July 2019

JST Website Nov/Dec 2019 http://www.dantes.doded.mil

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Hot News

Hot News ACT Program Changes

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he DANTES-sponsored ACT paper-based testing program is no longer an on-base option for military members.

The ACT exam can be taken at ACT test centers, located nationally and internationally. Test dates differ based on location. Click below to find more information: ACT National: • Testing Locations • Test Dates ACT International: • Testing Locations • Test Dates

DoD Partnership Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) Renewal

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ANTES worked with colleges, universities, and the DoD Voluntary Education Program Office to help academic partners renew their DoD Partnership Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), as part of a five year cycle. Approximately 2,600 colleges and universities are required to update their DoD MOU, a part of what makes them eligible to receive DoD tuition assistance funds. As of December 2019, MOUs with 2,050 college and universities have been renewed.

DANTES Information Bulletin

College & Career Planning Counseling Services DANTES partners with Kuder to provide a customized online portal through which all U.S. military members can access tools to help with transitioning to the civilian workforce and support postsecondary education planning. It currently serves 211,198 service members and veterans!

This career planning system enables service members to tailor their job decision-making around who they are now, not necessarily what they’ve done previously. The system delivers a “one-stopshop” with options to create resumes, apply for financial aid, search for jobs, and develop an electronic portfolio.

Kuder developed features to enable service members to search for occupations by military occupation specialty; learn about the GI Bill of Rights; and access links to military transition centers, military-specific transitional job services sites, and military-friendly employers. Kuder also developed a database for military education center personnel to administer program management and generate custom reports. Find out more about Kuder and DANTES here: https://www.kuder.com/about/ success-stories/dantes/.

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Troops to Teachers New Director

Meet the New Troops to Teachers Director

By Michelle Alexander

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ver the past few years, the Troops to Teachers (TTT) program has undergone several changes.

From eligibility adaptations to offering competitive grants awarded to state departments of education, the program continues to reshape and improve the ways in which it helps veterans become teachers.

I recently sat down with the newly appointed TTT Director, Taheesha Quarells, for an interview to introduce readers to the leader navigating the program through it’s new direction.

As the new Director, can you please tell our VolEd Community about your background so that they can get to know you better?

I am a U.S. Army veteran who has worked the last 20 years at the local, state, and federal levels of government expanding academic and career development opportunities for military members, veterans, and minorities. I’ve served in the areas of military veteran benefits, employment, vocational resource development, employer services, education counseling, education program and project management, contract management, strategic communications, and strategic planning. In each role, I was blessed with the opportunity to demonstrate my passion for serving others while achieving clear returns on public investments for human capital programs and services.

From your background, you have a very diverse skillset. How do you think those skills translate to leading the TTT program?

I am very grateful and excited to take on this new challenge. My previous positions and academic

DANTES Information Bulletin

training enabled me to develop skills in strategic planning, program evaluation, analytics, postsecondary education, acquisition, human capital research, and fostering partnerships. However, more important than my skillset, is the talent, dedication, experience and professionalism of the program office staff and state partners. Currently, we are all working toward strategic ways in which to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the program.

You mentioned the value of the program office staff and state partners. Can you elaborate?

Absolutely, they are the most valuable resource of this program. Each day, our program office staff manages the administrative and operational activities that make and keep the “engine running”.

Although too numerous to mention all that they do here, they administer and manage grants, assist veterans in completing the application and eligibility verification process, award financial incentives for employment and retention as full-time teachers, and coordinate program outreach to several stakeholder groups. Also, since we currently have 20 states and 4 U.S. territories without grant services, the program office staff mirror services provided by state grant partners.

Our talented state partners manage unique state-specific programs that coordinate with a wide network of stakeholders to deliver military and veteran recruitment, teacher certification counseling, referral, and employment facilitation services to program participants in 30 states. Each state has very specific criteria for becoming a teacher.

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Troops to Teachers New Director Also, there are other unique challenges military members and veterans face as they seek certification and employment as teachers. The state partners help program participants navigate and overcome those challenges through the services they offer in tandem with the education, employment and higher education communities within their state.

to these partners. We are all “One Team, with One Fight”! Be proactive and search for additional collaboration opportunities with the TTT program and others that will better support our shared mission of helping service members throughout their military career and transition into the civilian workforce.

Do you have any final thoughts that you would like to share?

In the following months, the DIB’s TTT section will introduce the readers to our state partners and the events and services they provide. I encourage leaders and counselors in education, transition, veterans, and family service centers to reach out

The TTT Team

Front row left to right: Allison Gaba, Jamie Henderson, Teresa Daniels, April Briggs, Tiffany Harris Back row left to right: Leslie Wright, Fred Perkins, Stacy Ross, Kevin Dinsmore, Chris Foltman, David Walker

DANTES Information Bulletin

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DANTES Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support

DANTES OCONUS European Advisor (Contingency Operation Support)

6490 Saufley Field Road, Pensacola, FL 32509 (850) 452-1901

DANTES_Outreach@navy.mil

011-49-611-143-511-1230

usarmy.badenwur.usareur.mbx.dantes-euro@ mail.mil

www.DANTES.DoDed.mil www.proudtoserveagain.com

DANTES INFORMATION BULLETIN

DANTES Information Bulletin The DANTES Information Bulletin is published monthly to inform education personnel about DANTES programs and to help promote more efficient customer service to service members.

Email all inquiries to DANTES_Outreach@navy.mil.

Reproduction in whole or in part is permitted for any purpose of the United States Government, except that copyrighted materials cannot be reproduced without written permission from the copyright owner. The appearance of external hyperlinks does not constitute endorsement by DANTES of the linked websites, or the information, products, or services contained therein.

Jeff Allen, Director Michelle Alexander, Editor DANTES Information Bulletin

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