In front of Shelton Park Elementary School in Virginia Beach, Va., this exhibit features special … [+]
When President Trump signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) last December, the country took a big step towards helping military families manage educational obstacles their children often face.
The massive bill that specifies the annual budget for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) expanded a provision known as the Military Student Identifier (MSI) to include not just active duty service members, but Reserve and National Guard members as well.
So, what’s the big deal?
The move signifies a recognition that the children of servicemembers deserve equal educational support, regardless of how their parents serve. We need to know how ALL military-connected kids are doing, not just the ones who have a parent serving in the military full-time.
To be clear, there are distinct differences between the categories of military service. Active duty members work for the DoD 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Reservists and National Guard members, on the other hand, typically hold normal civilian jobs and train periodically.
But all can be called upon to deploy to war zones or to support other critical missions and functions—and they certainly have. In fact, since Sept. 11, 2001, more than one million men and women of the Reserves and National Guard have been activated in support of the nation’s war on terror. Nearly 1,300 of them have died in the line of duty.
The MSI tracks the performance of military-connected students and provides states, districts and schools with detailed data about whether their educational needs are being met.
The quest for data about the performance of the nation’s military connected children came about because they face sweeping disruption due to their highly nomadic lives – often moving to different schools and different parts of the country every two to three years.
Four years ago, Congress passed the Every Student Succeeds Act, which mandated that states and districts begin collecting and reporting assessment data on military-connected students who have a parent or guardian in the active duty Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps or the Coast Guard. The fact that ESSA was silent on the children of National Guard and Reserves never sat well with advocates for military families.
“The children of National Guard and Reserve members have very similar experiences to the children of active duty servicemembers—they take great pride in their parent’s work, but also face hardships like frequent moves and parental deployments,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. “It’s not right that it’s harder for the children of National Guard and Reserves members to get the support they need in school.”
The data is key to tailoring programs for military-connected kids, many of whom come to school with varied educational experiences resulting from multiple moves. Teachers can use assessment data for small group instruction, intervention, acceleration and to meet the needs of individual students.
The data also is essential for tracking and coping with student transfers into and out of schools. Knowing how many military-connected students are highly mobile and which schools are most affected by this mobility helps districts determine which schools need more or different types of support.
However, only 30 states have made the MSI data publicly available on their state report cards. The result is that districts, schools and military families are deprived of essential information about the performance of military-connected students.
“Data is the answer to the question that we pose to the larger community. If you have no idea how many military children you have, you have no idea what you can gain from the military children there,” said Christi Ham, chairwoman of Military Families for High Standards.
Expansion of data collection to include children of parents in the National Guard and Reserves comes as military leaders are pressing for educational equity on another front. They are seeking to include these children in protections offered by the Military Interstate Children’s Compact. The Compact addresses educational transition issues encountered by children of service members, mainly those on active duty.
Without better information, better programs and the protection afforded by the Compact, too many military families face difficult decisions about taking the next assignment to another locale. And when military service members are distracted on the home front and seriously consider leaving the armed forces due to educational obstacles, we all lose. The nation’s military readiness suffers.
