The U.S. Army School of Advanced Military Studies' (SAMS) Advanced Strategic Leadership Studies Program has been accredited to grant Joint Professional Military Education Level II credit through 2019. The announcement was made in a memorandum from the Defense Department Director for Joint Force Development to the Commandant of the Command and General Staff College.
The Advanced Strategic Leadership Studies Program is a 10-month, in resident U.S. Army Senior Service College program intended to "educate future senior leaders of the Armed Forces, allies and the interagency for high-level policy, command, and staff responsibilities." Awarding JPME II accreditation is the culmination of over seven years of effort by leadership, faculty, and staff at SAMS and the college. Rich Dixon, deputy director of SAMS expressed thanks to the many individuals in the SAMS and Command and General Staff College who helped make the accreditation a reality.
Granting the advanced joint credit puts graduates of the program on par with officers who graduate from the Army War College and other senior service colleges. In his memorandum to the Commandant, Navy Vice Admiral Kevin D. Scott, director for joint force development, said, "I appreciate the hard work of the SAMS and ASLSP faculty and staff in presenting curricula that impart a joint perspective. Their efforts help ensure that we are developing agile leaders with the requisite values and critical thinking skills necessary for our fighting force."
A team appointed by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff conducted an on-site review of the program in April to determine if ASLSP had progressed sufficiently to merit initial accreditation. The team recommended conditional accreditation for three years. That accreditation can be extended to six years when appropriate solutions to deficiencies the team found are approved and implemented.
The team judged ASLSP against standards for 1) Develop Joint Awareness, Perspective and attitudes, 2) Employ Predominately Active and Highly Effective Instructional Methods, 3) Assess Student Achievement, 4) Assess Program Effectiveness, 5) Conduct Quality Faculty Recruitment: Selection, Assignment, and Performance Assessment Program, 6) Conduct Faculty Development Programs for Improving Instructional Skills and increasing Subject Matter Mastery, and 7) Provide institutional Resources to Support the Educational Process. The program fully met four of the seven standards and partially met the other three.
According to the Officer Professional Military Education Policy, "curricula for joint education focuses on how combatant commanders, joint staff and Department of Defense use the instruments of national power to develop and carry out national military strategy, develop joint operational expertise and perspectives, and hone joint leadership and warfighting skills." Top areas that need to be improved to extend accreditation for the SAMS program beyond the initial three years are: including a joint faculty member as an integral part of the program, mapping learning objectives to joint learning areas outlined in the Officer Professional Military Education Policy, and exploring options to increase dedicated active duty military officer presence on the ASLSP faculty.
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