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Departments of Defense & Education Sign Agreement
Posted by: Don Carr ()
Date: June 25, 2008 07:06PM

Departments of Defense & Education Sign Agreement

Wednesday, Jun 25, 2008 - 04:46 PM

Senior leaders in the Department of Defense and Department of Education signed a formal memorandum today at the Pentagon, agreeing to work collaboratively to ease the challenges of transitions for military dependent students. The document is the culmination of many years of informal partnering between the agencies.

The memorandum of understanding is designed to establish a framework for collaboration between the Department of Defense and the Department of Education to address the quality of education and the unique challenges faced by children of military families.

In general terms, the memorandum will serve as the basis on which the two departments will work together to strengthen and expand school-based efforts to ease student transitions, help military students develop academic skills that will last a lifetime and coping skills to help during deployment periods. The departments will work in concert to address five specific areas: quality education, student transition and support when a parent is deployed, data sharing, communication and outreach, and resources.

A working group, co-chaired by representatives of the two departments, will meet periodically to accomplish the stated goals of the memorandum.

"We have a long-standing, positive working relationship with the Department of Education.

The ongoing relocation within the Department of Defense has created an urgent need to enrich and expand this relationship and other partnerships with military connected communities to ensure the best possible educational opportunities for military students. This memorandum of understanding strengthens that partnership," said Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England, who signed the document on behalf of the Department of Defense.

In the next few years, thousands of military students will relocate as part of base realignment and closure, global rebasing and other force-structure changes. Of the 1.2 million school-age military students, only 8 percent attend DoD schools; the remaining 92 percent attend America's public, charter, private, independent and parochial schools across the nation. Some are home-schooled.

The rebasing impact provides an opportunity for the departments of Defense and Education to support local education activities and military communities in pursuit of quality education through the examination and sharing of successful educational options and best practices.

"We are committed to working together to create, expand, and improve quality education opportunities and to share best practices," said Deputy Secretary of Education Raymond Simon, the Department of Education signatory. "Our two departments are building on terrific efforts of many dedicated organizations with a goal of sharing information and capitalizing on the resources aimed at quality educational opportunities."

The memorandum is designed to be broad and comprehensive. It doesn't require nor mandate any actions on the part of any of the participants, especially local school districts, England said. The goal is to provide a framework and focus for collaborative efforts between the departments.  The real work of this effort will take place in small working groups which will be made up of representatives from both agencies and the local education community.  

"Our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines deserve the best educational opportunities for their families," England said. "We ask so much of them ? dedication, selfless service, frequent transfers and deployments away from the ones they love ? all in the name of protecting our nation and its interests. As we look to the future, we need to ensure the promise of quality education is kept; this agreement moves us further in that direction."

The memorandum of agreement signed today can be viewed online here: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/d20080625doddoe1.pdf .

Re: Departments of Defense & Education Sign Agreement
Posted by: Gravis ()
Date: June 25, 2008 07:27PM

off topic.


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."095042938540

Re: Departments of Defense & Education Sign Agreement
Posted by: Don Carr ()
Date: June 25, 2008 08:37PM

Gravis Wrote: "off topic."

Ooops, my mistake perhaps ... and the topic is??

Re: Departments of Defense & Education Sign Agreement
Posted by: Gravis ()
Date: June 25, 2008 11:45PM

Don Carr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Gravis Wrote: "off topic."
>
> Ooops, my mistake perhaps ... and the topic is??



the topic: Departments of Defense & Education Sign Agreement

which one of those departments is located in fairfax?


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."095042938540

Re: Departments of Defense & Education Sign Agreement
Posted by: Don Carr ()
Date: June 26, 2008 03:07AM

Gravis Wrote: "which one of those departments is located in fairfax?"

------------------

Neither, actually. But, hundreds of employees of both departments reside in Fairfax. Military folks live in Fairfax, too. Most on point is the fact that Fairfax schools - about which countless posts have been made in this Forum - may benefit from the agreement between DOE & DOD.

Re: Departments of Defense & Education Sign Agreement
Posted by: taxpayer ()
Date: June 26, 2008 06:54AM

Don Carr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Gravis Wrote: "which one of those departments is
> located in fairfax?"
>
> ------------------
>
> Neither, actually. But, hundreds of employees of
> both departments reside in Fairfax. Military folks
> live in Fairfax, too. Most on point is the fact
> that Fairfax schools - about which countless posts
> have been made in this Forum - may benefit from
> the agreement between DOE & DOD.

FCPS has IB instead of AP at Whitman and Mount Vernon. A pricey endeavor like the old jokes on the $1000 toilet seat.


Grammar, phonics, literature. No more Crayola Curriculum? On the DOD school curriculum website I did not see Everyday Math beyond pre-school or kindergarten. Parents and citizens who investigate curriculum are not pleased with Everyday math.



The service academies are heavy on the engineering types of majors. Why not consult with them on math, science, tech curriculum for k-12? Perhaps if the Military takes the lead and not Educrats such a maneuver will improve the public schools.

Is the MSAGap lower at the DOD schools than the comparable populations in LEA's like Fairfax?

Re: Departments of Defense & Education Sign Agreement
Posted by: Gravis ()
Date: June 26, 2008 07:36AM

Don Carr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Gravis Wrote: "which one of those departments is
> located in fairfax?"
>
> ------------------
>
> Neither, actually.


exactly, off-topic.


> But, hundreds of employees of
> both departments reside in Fairfax. Military folks
> live in Fairfax, too.


lots of people watch tv but you dont see anyone posting "american idol is awesome!"


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."095042938540

Re: Departments of Defense & Education Sign Agreement
Posted by: Mike Sorce ()
Date: June 26, 2008 08:20AM

I generally agree with Gravis on this, but I can understand Don Carr's confusion when the title on the home page states "Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication between residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting."

Unlike the earlier Fort Belvoir topic, the DOD/DOE topic is more general interest and does not belong here IMO.

Re: Departments of Defense & Education Sign Agreement
Posted by: Moderator ()
Date: June 26, 2008 08:35AM

**** “Fairfax General: Just about everything should go here. Anything of interest to Northern Virginia as a whole should be posted to this forum****


The above was copied from Cary’s (our forum administrator) “Welcome to Fairfax Underground”.


The average persons interpretation of the statement would permit posting of topics as long as there appears to be benefit to a significant portion of the Fairfax County population. FC has a very large population of Military Personnel in residence, therefore, the OP was appropriately posting this news information detailing the referenced collaboration between DOD and Education in this forum.

Right now, based on Cary’s guidelines, this topic is “on topic”.

Thank you and have a wonderful day.

Signed,

The Moderator

Re: Departments of Defense & Education Sign Agreement
Posted by: TheMeeper ()
Date: June 26, 2008 08:38AM

Yeah, I agree.

Feel free to post stuff like this in the Off-Topic section, we like to argue and yell at each other about stuff like this over in that forum too :))

Re: Departments of Defense & Education Sign Agreement
Posted by: TheMeeper ()
Date: June 26, 2008 08:42AM

Oh, and don't listen to the jackass posting as "Moderator". He is a troll and has nothing to do with the administration of this site.

Re: Departments of Defense & Education Sign Agreement
Posted by: coffin ()
Date: June 26, 2008 08:46AM

Anybody that thinks that DoD will compensate FCPS for anywhere close to the actual cost of educating all those Army brats is an idiot.

They aren't going to close to the cost of the road improvements either. Hell, they won't even clean up THEIR mess so the FFX Co Parkway can be completed. I say let there be gridlock down there....Belvoir employees aren't going to be able to get to work either.

And why the hell, with the government's fear of "terrah", are these installations located anywhere around here anyway? Put Belvoir, Myer, the Pentagon, etc out in the fucking desert where they would be easier to defend! Maybe once upon a time they needed to be near the Capitol, but with modern communications they can be anywhere.

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