DANTES' 35th Birthday
Written by Katherine Belcher
DoD's Premier Education Group
Looks at the Past, Present and Future
of Advanced Education in the Military.
At the end of July, DANTES is commemorating its 35th anniversary at the DoD Worldwide Education Symposium in Atlanta. The organization has come a long way from a bare-bones staff of four when it first opened to a staff of more than 80 people today who assist members of every branch of the armed forces to achieve professional and personal education objectives.
As a result, DANTES work also helps support the recruitment, retention and transition efforts of DoD.
The world of military voluntary education has seen tremendous change over the past three decades—specifically in the area of distance learning. DANTES’ Distance Learning Program offers servicemembers the opportunity to earn technical or college credit regardless of where they are stationed. The program provides alternatives to on-campus or on-base courses, has options to fulfill degree requirements and provides tuition assistance for those who are eligible.
Since the mid-1970s, the number of servicemembers taking online college courses has increased from 5 percent to more than 70 percent last year. Currently, more than two-thirds of the military’s tuition assistance funding is used for distance learning courses.
Technology is the great enabler of today’s distance learning experience, providing servicemembers with convenience, accessibility and ease of use as they pursue their education goals.
CD-ROMs, DVDs, PDAs, iPods, USBs and smartphones are some of the most popular devices that allow students to receive information, listen to course materials and, in some cases, record and edit materials to share with others. DANTES partners with hundreds of distance learning institutions to offer thousands of courses and various degree programs, all of which are listed in DANTES’ distance learning catalogs.
Through DANTES’ examinations program, individuals can earn a high school credential, satisfy undergraduate- and graduate-level college admission requirements and earn college credit. And it’s not just the participants who save time and money though the program, by the way—exam programs last year alone wound up saving the military more than $48 million in tuition assistance funding.
The program offers titles such as GED, ACT, SAT, CLEP, DSST, ECE, GRE, GMAT and Praxis. Most tests are offered at DANTES test sites on a funded basis for eligible military personnel and on a limited funded, space-available basis to eligible civilians.
DANTES-sponsored exams are administered by more than 500 military education test sites, including base-sponsored academic institutions with national test centers (NTCs). While many DANTES test control officers continue to administer paper exams, the number of NTCs offering computer-based CLEP, DSST and Excelsior College exams continues to grow. Today, there are more than 100 basesponsored NTCs on or near military installations around the world. Computer-based testing reduces administrative work associated with paper-based administration, and it greatly improves test security. Moreover, with computer-based testing, servicemembers have access to all available test titles and get their score results immediately.
Since the mid-1970s, DANTES has offered credentialing services to military members. Successful completion of these exams demonstrates a level of knowledge that meets industry standards and makes it easier for them to find employment if and when they leave the service.
At one time, paper-based exams were the only format available to military members. That has changed in recent years as computer based testing became more widely available. Dr. Sandra Winborne, manager of DANTES credentialing program, noted that the organization anticipates the demand for credentialing tests to increase for military members, and to meet that demand DANTES continues to form new partnerships and make exams available at all available military test sites and NTCs.
DANTES also offers programs to help servicemembers convert their military training into college credit. Since 1945, the American Council on Education (ACE) has provided a collaborative link between DoD and higher education through the review of military training and experiences and the recommendation of equivalent college credits for servicemembers.
Through ACE’s Military Guide Online, located at www.militaryguides. acenet.edu, education professionals have a basis for recognizing military educational experiences in terms of civilian academic credit. In the guide, there are more than 15,000 course exhibits and 3,100 occupation exhibits.
Since 1954, ACE has used approximately 7,000 faculty members to review military courses and occupations. This program has recommended more than 35,000 semester hours in the vocational/technical category; 187,000 in the lower-division baccalaureate and associate category; 64,000 in the upper-division baccalaureate category; and 6,200 in the graduate degree category.
DANTES also funds the Servicemembers Opportunities College (SOC) consortium, which operates a variety of programs that give servicemembers opportunities to earn associate or bachelor’s degrees while in the service, enroll in a college concurrently with enlistment in the Army or Army Reserve, and earn college credits and degrees while in the Army National Guard.
Since its inception in December 1972, the SOC consortium has grown from 77 community and junior colleges to more than 1,800 colleges and universities. SOC member schools recognize the problems faced by military students whose jobs require frequent moves. Therefore, they make it easier for them to obtain college degrees rather than just accumulate course credit. Servicemembers benefit in a variety of ways, because SOC limits the amount of course work students must take at a single college to no more than 25 percent of degree requirements, designs transfer practices that minimize loss of credit and avoids duplication of course work, and awards credit for military experience.
But it’s not only the military member that benefits from this program. From a cost-benefit analysis standpoint, this program is a win-win for taxpayers and servicemembers. Tuition cost avoidance for FY08 is estimated at $171 million. Since the program’s inception, hundreds of millions of dollars of tuition assistance funding have been saved.
DANTES’ programs are not limited to military members, however. The agency also provides education center personnel with the tools they need to provide college and career guidance. These tools include career planning programs, career assessment inventories, interest and skills surveys, self-directed searches and type indicators.
While the basic format of career counseling assessments has changed little in the past few years, the advent of electronic formats made it possible for military members to test anywhere with Internet access, and in many cases, get immediate results, noted Steve Beckman, manager of the DANTES Counselor Support Program. Counselors also have access to the results so they, along with the servicemember, can come to counseling sessions ready to work on a degree plan, Beckman said.
Another department of DANTES, Education Outreach, provides informational briefings and serves as a DoD liaison to the Advisory Councils on Military Education (ACME). Primarily, Education Outreach coordinates the DoD Worldwide Education Symposium, which has its origins in the 1960s, when the University of Maryland University College partnered with DoD to begin hosting annual and biennial meetings for professionals working in military voluntary education. Eventually these meetings became known as the Worldwide Military Services Education Conference. In 1994, DANTES began coordinating the conference, and its name was changed to the DoD Worldwide Education Symposium.
The goal of the symposium this year in Atlanta, which is expected to draw at least 2,000 attendees, is to support continuous learning and cooperation among all partners that educate service men and women, according to Sharon Beaudoin, DANTES Acme/ outreach manager, who said the symposium offers a platform to spotlight noteworthy advances and provides a forum to discuss future trends.
Finally, DANTES’ Troops to Teachers program provides counseling and referral services to military personnel interested in beginning a second career in public education as a teacher after leaving the military. The program, which began 12 years ago, helps applicants identify teacher certification requirements and programs leading to certification, in addition to employment opportunities. The program has placed thousands of quality teachers in at-risk schools across the country. ♦
Katherine Belcher is a writer and graphic designer with the U.S. Navy and editor of the monthly DANTES Information Bulletin.
Some DANTES Stats
- Since 1974, more than 1.2 million people have taken 4.3 million DSST/CLEP subject and general exams. The Air Force leads all services with more than 530,000, followed closely by the Army with 423,665.
- For FY08, the tuition cost avoidance figure for the ACE military evaluation program was $171 million. The program awarded 684,106 semester hours of credit. The Navy led the way with 306,105.
- Distance learning enrollments have dramatically increased in recent years, with more than two-thirds of military tuition assistance funds expended for these types of courses. Approximately 70 percent of military students take online courses.
- DANTES’ Distance Learning Catalogs currently contain 234 institutions, 3,893 degree programs and 17,240 courses.
- DANTES stocks nearly 200 different items in its distribution center, including 40 publications offering information on financial aid, grants and scholarships, college majors, graduate schools, veterans’ education benefits, college success tips and more. DANTES sends these materials to sites across the country and around the world.
- In 2008, the DANTES Distribution Center shipped out more than 890,000 items. This includes nearly 760,000 items shipped within the United States and more than 132,000 shipped overseas.
- Since 1994, approximately 12,000 veterans have become public school teachers through the DANTES-managed Troops to Teachers program.
- The first DoD Worldwide Education Symposium that was sponsored by DANTES was held in 1994 in St. Louis. Other cities to host the conference include Dallas, Orlando and Atlanta.
- Attendance has risen 117 percent since that first symposium, with nearly 1,800 people attending in 2006.
- The number of schools participating also has risen dramatically. In 1994, there were 317 schools and agencies working with the symposium. In 2006, that number more than doubled to 690.