...I mentioned the Reaffirmation of Accreditation Visit Team, and that their visit would culminate the Self-Study conducted by our faculty and staff over the past year. The Self-Study documents the activity dealing with 10 Standards of the evaluation with a range of areas from Educational Programs to Strategic Planning to Student Services and Activities to name only three of them. While awaiting the final written report of the visit, I am pleased to tell you that DISCS received no findings and two commendables! The first commendable pertained to our internal faculty and staff development program – a major effort over the last couple of years which has produced great results in getting our new personnel proficient in their duties. It has made a dramatic change in terms of getting faculty qualified and on the platform more quickly. The second commendable reflects on the SC community and not simply DISCS as it recognized the effort that goes into our curriculum update/validation process which includes the subject matter expertise of our constituency organizations.
We thank you for your support in that process, which will be even more important in the future as we address the Security Cooperation Workforce (SCW) competencies going forward. I also need to note that the team talked to the classes while in session during their visit (in addition to a variety of DISCS personnel). The class feedback on courseware, faculty knowledge/interaction, etc., was nothing short of fully supportive and very noteworthy were their comments about the quality and how well the online/prerequisite courses prepared them for their primary/resident courses. I view the results of the visit as reflecting on our entire workforce and community, and not simply on DISCS. We can’t be effective without you, and I thank all of you – regardless of your role in SC – for your support! We will not have the final report and ultimate approval of the reaffirmation for several months as the COE Staff and Board have to review before the formal approval. I’ll provide that update when it does happen.
DISCS continues to focus much of its effort to curriculum development in line with SCW certification efforts to provide training in line with the competencies developed for the workforce. More to follow on to our website regarding the implementation of new courses – and when the alpha/beta testing begins for the courseware. Again, stand by for announcements and registration opportunities for these and other courses as each nears readiness. In the meantime we continue with our schedule and the conduct of legacy courses while new courses are in development.
A note to address concerns over “credit” for the legacy courses. As we move ahead with the new courseware, we will transfer credit to the maximum extent possible (that won’t be lost) and will ultimately save our students effort in only needing to accomplish additional courseware to make up gaps critical for them. Time and effort will not be wasted by our students. As we transition through the next 1-3 years, students’ educational accomplishments will count towards filling future educational gaps and/or continuing education.
Remember, DISCS centrally funds the TDY expenses for our USG students. All course information and the ability to register for them resides on this website whether for classes conducted at our WPAFB campus, our NCR campus, or other location where we send our teams.
I look forward to updating you here – to keep you informed as DISCS keeps pace with all pieces of the SCW Development Program.
Sincerely,
Dr. Ron Reynolds
Posted April 19, 2019