The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) is a federal school system headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia,[1] responsible for planning, directing, coordinating, and managing prekindergarten through 12th grade educational programs on behalf of the United States Department of Defense (DoD). DoDEA is globally positioned, operating 163 accredited schools in 8 districts located in 11 foreign countries, 7 states, Guam, and Puerto Rico.[2]
DoDEA employs 15,000 employees who serve 71,000 children of active duty military and DoD civilian families.[2]
DoDEA operates as a field activity of the Office of the Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness). It is headed by a director who oversees all agency functions from DoDEA headquarters in Alexandria. DoDEA's schools are divided into 3 geographic areas: Europe, the Pacific, and the Americas.[2]
Shortly after the end of World War II, the United States military established schools for the children of its service men and women stationed in Europe and the Pacific. Schools for children of military members stationed at various bases in the United States were already well-established. First administered by the military branches they served, the growing number of schools was soon transferred to civilian managers, then organized into two separate but parallel systems: the Department of Defense Dependents Schools (Pacific and Europe) overseas, and the Department of Defense Domestic Dependent Elementary and Secondary Schools (Americas) in the United States. In 1994 the two systems were brought together under an umbrella agency, the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA).[2] Shortly thereafter, the official DoDEA logo was created by DoDEA Art Director, Calvin Bohner, in 1998.
Activities
The DoDEA instructional program provides a prekindergarten through 12th grade curriculum. Currently 100% of DoDEA schools are accredited and in good standing with their regional accrediting agency. Students consistently achieve high scores in the National Assessment of Educational Progress and above the national average on standardized assessments. Minority students have been especially successful, scoring at or near the highest in the United States in mathematics.[2]
DoDEA measures student progress with multiple performance-based assessments. The TerraNova standardized test provides DoDEA with results that it can compare to a nationwide sample. DoDEA students also take the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which provides comparisons of student achievement in reading, writing, math, and science. All DoDEA schools are accredited by the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement (NCA CASI) or the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Council on Accreditation and School Improvement (SACS CASI), which provide each school with an independent evaluation.[2]
Schools submit annual reports of data, and every five years they host an on-site validation visit led by education experts from the United States. Following the on-site visits, the experts send a report that includes recommendations for improvements to each of the schools visited. DoDEA conducts internal monitoring of educational programs to ensure high-quality implementation of new programs and overall effectiveness of existing programs. Monitoring activities may include, but are not limited to the following activities: surveys, interviews, focus groups, classroom observations and the analysis of achievement and training data. Currently 100% of DoDEA schools are accredited and in good standing.[2]
Operations
In 2008 the U.S. Congress published a study stating that decreased military budgets resulted in 70% of the DoDEA schools having campuses in less than ideal physical condition, with their conditions specifically noted as either "poor" or "failing".[4]
A 2015 editorial of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune noted that schools in the DoDEA, were well funded, partly due to post-September 11 attacks security concerns and partly because of the size of the DOD itself, as well as the leadership of Robert Gates, who served as the Secretary of Defense. The Star-Tribune contrasted this with the lesser-funded Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) network, also federal and serving Native American students.[5]
Sarah Mervosh of The New York Times, citing National Assessment of Educational Progress scores and performance levels of racial minorities, wrote in 2023 that DoDEA campuses "quietly achieve results most educators can only dream of."[6] The nature of military employment means that students have parents with jobs and support structures, and according to Mervosh, the DoDEA campuses are "well-funded, socioeconomically and racially integrated, and have a centralized structure that is not subject to the whims of school boards or mayors."[6] That year, David Leonhardt, also of The New York Times, wrote that the DoDEA "has been performing well for years and continued to do so during the [COVID-19 pandemic]."[7]
Academic achievement
In 2001 the Government Accountability Office (GAO) wrote "The academic achievement of DOD students, as measured by their performance on standardized tests and their plans for enrolling in college, generally exceeds that of elementary and secondary students nationwide. On college admission tests, DOD students score at or near national averages."[8]
DoDEA Americas Region
Headquartered in Peachtree City, Georgia, in the Atlanta metropolitan area, DoDEA Americas is divided into 2 school districts (Americas Mid-Atlantic and Americas Southeast) and operates 51 schools at 16 military communities on the U.S. mainland, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. As of May 2019, it educates approximately 22,000 students of U.S. military and eligible DoD civilian personnel families.[9]
High school students attend local public schools based on what county they reside in:[13]Cumberland County Schools for Cumberland County residents,[14] and Hoke County Schools for Hoke County residents.[15] The Cumberland County parts are assigned to EE Smith High School.[16]
Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division, VA
Dahlgren ES/MS
The school first opened in 1921.[18] The school's principal facility was built during World War II. In 2011 a review of the building found that it was in "poor" shape.[4]
King George County Public Schools operates non-DoDEA public schools in King George County. Most off-post persons associated with NSF Dahlgren send their children to King George County schools.[19]King George High School is the local county high school.
Marine Corps Base Quantico, VA
Crossroads ES
The 129,577-square-foot (12,038.1 m2) facility was scheduled to open in Spring 2016. It had a cost of $47 million. It has a two-story media center and a rooftop environmental science center, patio, and garden. The facility uses natural light and heating from geothermal sources. In 2015 the Star-Tribune described it as "state-of-the-art school design".[5] It replaced Ashurst, Burrows, and Russell elementary schools in Quantico.[4]
The academy is physically in the Highland Falls Central School District.[20] The military installation sends students to James I. O'Neill High School of Highland Falls for high School, under contract. Pre-school through 8th grade attend school on the military academy grounds. The elementary school and the middle school are part of the DoDEA system, not in the Highland Falls School District. In 2021, 190 high school children living on post attended James I O'Neill High School. In 2021 the agency at West Point announced that the bid to educate West Point High School students would be competitive.[21] In March 2022 the O'Neill contract was renewed.[22]
The high school first opened in 1962.[26] The current high school building was dedicated in 2018.[27] Of the students, the percentage who attend for all four years total at FCHS is 10.[26]
There were plans for a new middle school, but in 2019 the funds were instead designated for a wall along the Mexico-United States border.[28]
Fort Jackson, SC
The DoDEA schools on-post for Fort Jackson are Pierce Terrace Elementary School (Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 1) and C.C. Pinckney Elementary School (grades 2–6).[29] Students are zoned to non-DoDEA schools for secondary school: Dent Middle School and Richland Northeast High School, which are operated by Richland County School District Two.[30]
Students at the secondary level on Fort Stewart attend public schools operated by county school districts. Liberty County School District operates the public schools in Liberty County.[32]
Beaufort County School District operates public high schools serving MCAS Beaufort,[34] and in sum has the highest number of students, of any school system, affiliated with MCAS Beaufort.[35]
DoDEA Europe Region
Headquartered in Kapaun AS, Kaiserslautern, Germany, DoDEA Europe is organized into 3 districts (EU East, EU South, and EU West) and operates 65 schools within 27 U.S. military communities across Europe. As of May 2019, the DoDEA European region educates approximately 27,000 children of U.S. military and eligible DoD civilian personnel families.[36]
Headquartered in Yokota AB, Japan, the DoDEA Pacific region is organized into 3 districts (Pacific East, Pacific South, and Pacific West) and operates 47 schools on 21 U.S. military installations in Guam, Japan, Okinawa and South Korea. As of May 2019, the DoDEA Pacific Region educates over 22,000 children of U.S. military and eligible DoD civilian personnel families.[37]
^"Contact Us". Department of Defense Education Activity. Retrieved 2022-07-05. DoDEA Headquarters Department of Defense Education Activity 4800 Mark Center Drive Alexandria, VA 22350-1400
^ abcdefg"About DoDEA". Department of Defense Education Activity. Retrieved 15 June 2019. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
^"Albritton MS: About Our School". Department of Defense Education Activity. Retrieved 2022-07-05. With the addition of Shughart Middle School in the Linden Oaks community,[...]
^ ab"Fort Benning Schools". Department of Defense Education Activity. Retrieved 2022-07-04. - The document states that the county schools have high school zoning.
This list is incomplete. Some DoDEA communities in the United States are zoned to non-DoDEA public schools for middle school and high school or for high school. See also: Template:Bureau of Indian Education (federal Native American school system) Template:Directorate Children and Young People (British military school system)
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