At the Inflection Point: Designing Army Assessments

Authors

  • Ken Long
  • Bernard F. Harris

Abstract

The Army Command & General Staff College found itself at an inflection point in the fall of 2012, with the Army winding down 10 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and shifting its focus away from the specific wartime needs of Southwest Asia and towards a new and deeper appreciation of the Asia-Pacific region, emerging threats in cyberspace, and the challenges of developing stable alliance partners capable of dealing with transnational threats in their own sovereign territories. The Deputy Commandant of the college initiated a strategic review of the college’s curriculum to ensure that these new focus areas, and others that might be uncovered would be addressed in time to prepare quality education through academic year 2020. Using the Army Design Methodology, 3 independent teams proceeded to describe the operational environment, frame problem sets, and recommend operational approaches for achieving the desired future-state. Along the way all three teams identified that college needed to address its appraisal process comprehensively in order to ensure that needs for student evaluation and certification, program review and college accreditation were satisfied. This paper describes the emerging insights and issues associated with this project, and the issues w\that the command group must consider when preparing their planning guidance for how to proceed with developing a detailed plan for action.

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