Alliance Chair Alma Powell speaks at Military Child Education Coalition’s 12th annual conference
7/30/2010
By Cynthia Hobgood
America’s Promise Alliance Chair Alma Powell was a keynote speaker July 22 at the Military Child Education Coalition’s annual conference near Washington, D.C. An Alliance Partner, MCEC is focused on ensuring quality educational opportunities for all military-connected children affected by mobility, family separation and transition.
Mrs. Powell spoke on the subjects of service and community, pointing out that while many underlying challenges of educating military children, such as mobility, remain the same, life has changed for military families, creating new challenges. Most military children live off the installation and the overwhelming majority attend non-military schools. And many children are dealing with extended deployments of one or even both parents. The explained that involving the wider community in the education of military children is more important than ever before.
MCEC's role is to help families, schools and communities be better prepared to support children during frequent moves and difficult – and sometimes traumatic – times in the life of military families. Military children generally move from six to nine times during their K-12 school years. Many make multiple moves during high school years alone, some even during their senior year. Academic standards, courses, access to programs, promotion and graduation requirements, programs for children with special needs, and transfer and acceptance of records vary greatly from state to state and even from school to school. These frustrations, in addition to giving up friends and associates with whom a rapport has been established, cause further anxiety. And separation from a deployed parent (or parents) raises an additional issue.
MCEC is working to solve the challenge of helping schools and military installations deliver accurate, timely information to meet transitioning parent and student needs, and in the development and education of children from military families. The organization’s mission is to share information to develop systems to resolve transition issues for military students. MCEC’s role includes:
- Develop information to support the transitioning military student.
- Develop and maintain an alliance of school districts for the purposes of communication and networking.
- Determine the support military installations could potentially provide local districts.
- Examine technologies (teleconferencing, Internet, etc.) and develop procedures to support information sharing between military impacted school districts.
- Examine sources of funding to support the alliance.
- Develop an action plan to implement the above objectives.
To learn more about MCEC, including how to get involved, visit http://www.militarychild.org.