In 2017, I wrote for the TNTP Blog about my experience growing up as a DoDEA student years ago and how its common core-like standards today help kids achieve.
Terrific piece, Tim. When I was writing my book about Success Academy, I noted the observably disproportionate share of children there whose parents were married, employed, and religious. I came across research from William Jeynes who told me, “Family factors are even more important than school factors in terms of determining achievement. That’s just a reality." Jeynes metastudies demonstrated "that in religious (mostly Christian) schools the achievement gap 'mostly goes away' among African American and Latino students 'who are religious and from intact families.'"
Could that explain at least part of what's going on here? If Grok/AI is correct:
Approximately 85-90% of children in DoDEA (Department of Defense Education Activity) schools come from two-parent families, compared to about 70% of U.S. children overall.
Approximately 40-45% of active-duty military personnel attend religious services weekly, compared to about 20-25% of U.S. adults overall who report weekly attendance.
As a curriculum and instruction guy, I'd like the difference to be those things, not family-related. But like the song says, you can't always get what you want. What do you think?
I don't think religion plays a role except as a motivator for marriage and against divorce. East Asians do very well academically and a lot of them are agnostics or atheists. But Asian families have very low divorce rates and parents are rarely unemployed.
Unifying the instructional materials certainly helped increase achievement, but I wonder how much school culture/military culture influenced outcomes. This is of course difficult to measure, but from a purely anecdotal perspective, I have a brother in the military, and having met military families from different socioeconomic backgrounds, I can say with confidence that they all teach their kids to respect authority figures. I will admit that I have a limited perspective because I've never worked at a DoDEA school, but hopefully someone who has worked at one can speak to how military culture (discipline, respect, authority) influences the school environment.
Great posting -- when I was at ED in 2009-2013, we tried so hard to work with DoDEA and they were quite inflexible and uninterested in improvement. After I left ED and started working with DoDEA through my CCSSO support of states in 2014, DoDEA was under new leadership and they were all ears! It was a joy supporting them in implementing new standards and curricula. That's where their military "home" really shined -- they IMPLEMENTED those materials everywhere, with integrity, as per their plan.
On implementation, they have a huge leg up on states -- their structure is more like a district's structure than a state's (in that all principals report to them), but their culture is centralized and precise in ways that no district's is. Once they decide to do something, they do it like the military does -- they do it well.
P.S. I have an aunt who was a DoDEA teacher as well -- in Europe and Asia! She was my fave.
This is great stuff. It's the "old school equity" you mention that does it for me!
After ten years teaching in public, private, and charter schools in the NYC area, I finally fled after hearing that traditional education and academic achievement were tools of oppression one too many times (by the way, once is one too many times, but I had to pay rent).
Now I teach ESL in Central America to the most adorable first graders you could ever care to meet. In my short time here, two major differences have struck me about education compared to NYC. First, the general public holds teachers in much higher esteem than in the States. Second, my students are eager to learn and want mid-90s and above on every assignment because their parents demand it. So if you ask me, the secret ingredient to the DoDEA success is simple -- mom and dad.
Ehhhh I don’t find it all that impressive…sorry. The U.S. military increasingly draws from middle class and even upper class ranks. This creates a selection effect that hard to square. You also have a more unified culture with stable employment. The right comparison would likely be a private school of similar demographic mix, not overall public schools. Sorry to be a downer
Brilliant! I always see DoDEA at the top of NAEP scores and always wished someone would analyze it. I finally got my wish, so thank you. I do think attentive military families and the discipline that is likely part of they manage their households is one factor, as Robert P. points out. I will be referring to this article a lot and hope Delaware might take some lessons from it.
Thank you for writing this! There few positive stories about American education these days, its hard to make the case that student decline is not inevitable but a policy choice
Fantastic breakdown. The Black and Latino 4th grade reading data is stunning,67% vs 53% gap isn't just statistically significant its a whole different educational universe. I've spent time lookign at systems trying to close achievement gaps and most get caught up in cultural debates or resource allocation fights. DoDEA's advantage seems to be avoiding both those traps through sheer institutional coherence and treating curriculum rollout like operations. The "One DoDEA" insight about transient students needing continuity really clarfies why standards alignment matters more than most reform debates acknowledge.
1. The importance of every child having an employed parent, sufficient nutrition as a result, and a bed to sleep in cannot be overstated. The U.S. must take steps to ensure ALL children have these basic necessities of healthy living. That is not happening in most states, even in MA.
2. There's no mention of ELL students. I suspect the numbers are lower in DoDEA schools than those of the average US school. ELL students in MA must take grade-level tests after being in the country for one year. These students are not yet fluent readers/writers, but will be with time and proper instruction. However, during the first year or two, their scores are lower, just as any English speaker 's scores would be if they were required to take a 4th/8/th/10th grade test in German, Mandarin, Spanish, etc. after just one year living in another country.
"We determine these adjustments by calculating how each individual student who takes the NAEP scores relative to students nationwide who are the same gender, age, and race or ethnicity and have the same free and reduced-price lunch receipt status, special education status, and English language learner status"
Yes to your first point, Jane! The "bottom 10%" of military families still have all that you mentioned...PLUS universal health care. The bottom 10% of students who I taught when I taught public school were homeless, living in cars, and couldn't see the board because they didn't have enough access to health care to get glasses.
How much would the achievement gaps in our country disappear if we stopped blaming teachers and curriculum and started funding social safety nets that our DoDEA students have?
In 2017, I wrote for the TNTP Blog about my experience growing up as a DoDEA student years ago and how its common core-like standards today help kids achieve.
https://tntp.org/blog/for-military-brats-the-common-core-is-a-no-brainer/
Terrific piece, Tim. When I was writing my book about Success Academy, I noted the observably disproportionate share of children there whose parents were married, employed, and religious. I came across research from William Jeynes who told me, “Family factors are even more important than school factors in terms of determining achievement. That’s just a reality." Jeynes metastudies demonstrated "that in religious (mostly Christian) schools the achievement gap 'mostly goes away' among African American and Latino students 'who are religious and from intact families.'"
Could that explain at least part of what's going on here? If Grok/AI is correct:
Approximately 85-90% of children in DoDEA (Department of Defense Education Activity) schools come from two-parent families, compared to about 70% of U.S. children overall.
Approximately 40-45% of active-duty military personnel attend religious services weekly, compared to about 20-25% of U.S. adults overall who report weekly attendance.
As a curriculum and instruction guy, I'd like the difference to be those things, not family-related. But like the song says, you can't always get what you want. What do you think?
Best,
Robert
I don't think religion plays a role except as a motivator for marriage and against divorce. East Asians do very well academically and a lot of them are agnostics or atheists. But Asian families have very low divorce rates and parents are rarely unemployed.
Unifying the instructional materials certainly helped increase achievement, but I wonder how much school culture/military culture influenced outcomes. This is of course difficult to measure, but from a purely anecdotal perspective, I have a brother in the military, and having met military families from different socioeconomic backgrounds, I can say with confidence that they all teach their kids to respect authority figures. I will admit that I have a limited perspective because I've never worked at a DoDEA school, but hopefully someone who has worked at one can speak to how military culture (discipline, respect, authority) influences the school environment.
Great posting -- when I was at ED in 2009-2013, we tried so hard to work with DoDEA and they were quite inflexible and uninterested in improvement. After I left ED and started working with DoDEA through my CCSSO support of states in 2014, DoDEA was under new leadership and they were all ears! It was a joy supporting them in implementing new standards and curricula. That's where their military "home" really shined -- they IMPLEMENTED those materials everywhere, with integrity, as per their plan.
On implementation, they have a huge leg up on states -- their structure is more like a district's structure than a state's (in that all principals report to them), but their culture is centralized and precise in ways that no district's is. Once they decide to do something, they do it like the military does -- they do it well.
P.S. I have an aunt who was a DoDEA teacher as well -- in Europe and Asia! She was my fave.
This is great stuff. It's the "old school equity" you mention that does it for me!
After ten years teaching in public, private, and charter schools in the NYC area, I finally fled after hearing that traditional education and academic achievement were tools of oppression one too many times (by the way, once is one too many times, but I had to pay rent).
Now I teach ESL in Central America to the most adorable first graders you could ever care to meet. In my short time here, two major differences have struck me about education compared to NYC. First, the general public holds teachers in much higher esteem than in the States. Second, my students are eager to learn and want mid-90s and above on every assignment because their parents demand it. So if you ask me, the secret ingredient to the DoDEA success is simple -- mom and dad.
Great blog. The steadiness since 2013 in the wake of all the declines is fascinating. You put forward 3 explainers:
1. The Other Tom Brady - instructional change
2. Changing demo - more college grads among DOD?
3. School culture - held steady, while typical schools got lax
If you could only guess one....?
Ehhhh I don’t find it all that impressive…sorry. The U.S. military increasingly draws from middle class and even upper class ranks. This creates a selection effect that hard to square. You also have a more unified culture with stable employment. The right comparison would likely be a private school of similar demographic mix, not overall public schools. Sorry to be a downer
Brilliant! I always see DoDEA at the top of NAEP scores and always wished someone would analyze it. I finally got my wish, so thank you. I do think attentive military families and the discipline that is likely part of they manage their households is one factor, as Robert P. points out. I will be referring to this article a lot and hope Delaware might take some lessons from it.
Thank you for writing this! There few positive stories about American education these days, its hard to make the case that student decline is not inevitable but a policy choice
Fantastic breakdown. The Black and Latino 4th grade reading data is stunning,67% vs 53% gap isn't just statistically significant its a whole different educational universe. I've spent time lookign at systems trying to close achievement gaps and most get caught up in cultural debates or resource allocation fights. DoDEA's advantage seems to be avoiding both those traps through sheer institutional coherence and treating curriculum rollout like operations. The "One DoDEA" insight about transient students needing continuity really clarfies why standards alignment matters more than most reform debates acknowledge.
Interesting article.
A few thoughts:
1. The importance of every child having an employed parent, sufficient nutrition as a result, and a bed to sleep in cannot be overstated. The U.S. must take steps to ensure ALL children have these basic necessities of healthy living. That is not happening in most states, even in MA.
2. There's no mention of ELL students. I suspect the numbers are lower in DoDEA schools than those of the average US school. ELL students in MA must take grade-level tests after being in the country for one year. These students are not yet fluent readers/writers, but will be with time and proper instruction. However, during the first year or two, their scores are lower, just as any English speaker 's scores would be if they were required to take a 4th/8/th/10th grade test in German, Mandarin, Spanish, etc. after just one year living in another country.
I was going to say that I agreed, but then I checked the link and it seems like the demographically adjusted measurement does control for ELL status:
https://www.urban.org/research/publication/states-demographically-adjusted-performance-2024-national-assessment
"We determine these adjustments by calculating how each individual student who takes the NAEP scores relative to students nationwide who are the same gender, age, and race or ethnicity and have the same free and reduced-price lunch receipt status, special education status, and English language learner status"
Yes to your first point, Jane! The "bottom 10%" of military families still have all that you mentioned...PLUS universal health care. The bottom 10% of students who I taught when I taught public school were homeless, living in cars, and couldn't see the board because they didn't have enough access to health care to get glasses.
How much would the achievement gaps in our country disappear if we stopped blaming teachers and curriculum and started funding social safety nets that our DoDEA students have?
Fascinating. I had no idea there was a DoDEA.
Amazing, and had no idea. Thanks so much for writing about it.