The United States military is one of the world’s largest, most active military organizations. With millions of some of the best men and women listed among its members, maintaining the readiness, health, and overall welfare of U.S. forces is paramount to achieving goals of world diplomacy and domestic safety. However, one of the often-overlooked areas necessary to maintain the readiness, health, and welfare of U.S. forces is the education of military members’ children. Due to a historical and growing presence of U.S. military members and their children in foreign territories and countries – along with the ongoing need to fulfill strategic needs for domestic military locations – educating military members’ children has become a herculean task. Fortunately, as with every other mission, the U.S. military has established a multi-faceted approach to deal with the task headed by the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA).
As with any military undertaking, the education of the military members’ children must operate under a chain of command. Simply put, the chain of command is just a virtual string of people to whom everyone below must answer. According to DoDEA.edu, this organization is “a Department of Defense field activity operating under the direction, authority and control of the Undersecretary of Defense” (“Chain of Command”). However, this wordy description doesn’t really explain who answers to whom. For the DoDEA, the chain of command begins with the President of the United States, who is above the Secretary of Defense. Then the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, who is above the Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel Readiness, who is in turn above Assistant Secretary of Defense for Readiness and Force Management (“Chain of Command”). Then the DoDEA Director is above Principal Deputy Director & Associate Director for Education, and the Associate Director for Financial & Business Operations. Under these directors are the directors of DoDEA Americas and Pacific, as well as DoDDS-Europe. A very helpful chart is provided by the DoDEA.edu website, along with the names of current personnel filling each role (“Chain of Command”).
With parents being consistently deployed multiple times, there are some glaring issues for military families. According to Kudler & Porter (2013) one of these problems is that “most schools, for example, do not routinely asses the military status of new students’ parents (p. 163). Without such basic information, it is impossible for schools to provide vital services to students who may be transitioning to a new school partway through the school year, due to a parent’s deployment causing the need for living in another geographical location with extended family.
Many military families include those who were children and/or grandchildren of other military members. In fact, as Kudler & Porter (2013) found, “57 percent of active-duty troops serving in 2011 were the children of current or former active-duty or reserve service members” (p. 164). This means that the U.S. military has more than half of its members due to long-standing family traditions of military service, handed down from grandparent, to parent, to child. The implications of such ongoing service are far-reaching and significant (Kudler & Porter, 2013, p. 166).
Interestingly, sometimes military families and communities pull together to care for their own, “for example, wartime life on a military base in a foreign country” (Kudler & Porter, 2013, p. 164). Yet, in the absence of such obviously tumultuous times and circumstances, even those in military communities themselves might not behave in the most beneficial ways. This is where the military hierarchy is needed. The Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunities for Military Children is meant to “replace the widely varying policies affecting transitioning military students” by addressing “key educational transition issues encountered by military families including enrollment, placement, attendance, eligibility, and graduation” (“About MIC3”, 2013). These issues are the main reasons that professionals in Local Education Activities (LEAs) find it so difficult to successfully transition and support students coming from DoDEA schools. Fortunately, the Compact helped educators develop and adhere to specific, consistent guidelines for all students transitioning into or out of DoDEA schools.
There are numerous aspects of military culture that can affect the social and academic success of military students. One of the most frequently discussed aspects of recent military culture which has been negatively affecting the social and academic success of military students is repeated deployments by military parents. These deployments can last anywhere from a few months to over a year, and could be repeated with as little as one month between deployments, depending upon several factors such as mission necessity, service member’s rank and job, etc. According to Noon (n.d.), these repeated deployments have been identified as causing “less parental involvement from parent at home, limited opportunities for youth to attend extracurricular activities, [and] teens having increased care of home and younger siblings” just to name a few (p. 12-13).
However, being part of a military culture can also positively affect social and academic success of military students, too. When a military parent is deployed to different geographical locations and children are exposed to different cultures, it can broaden the children’s horizons and provide and more varied worldview. Cultural opportunities may also strengthen military children’s decision to follow in their parent’s footsteps by enlisting in the military when they become adults, and pass down the tradition to their children. With the assistance of organizations such as the DoDEA, the consistency of the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunities for Military Children, and greater understanding of the positive and negative effects military life can have on children, it is possible to ensure that a military member’s service runs more smoothly and children have a much better experience than any time in the past.
References
DoDEA.edu. (n.d.). DoDEA’s chain of command. Retrieved from http://www.dodea.edu/aboutDoDEA/command.cfm
Kudler, H., & Porter, R. I. (2013). Building communities of care for military children and families. The Future of Children, 23(2) Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1519284102?accountid=13217
Mic3.net. (2013). Military Interstate Children’s Compact Commission. About MIC3. Retrieved from http://mic3.net/pages/About/about.aspx
Noon, T. (n.d.). Military culture: The effects of deployment on military kids. Retrieved from http://gucchdtacenter.georgetown.edu/Activities/Rural%20Symposium/Presentation%20Files/Workshops%20Day%202/WS15-WED%20(T.Noon)%20REVISED.pdf
