Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Educational Support - DANTES

1. Provide valuable and high-quality educational opportunities to servicemembers, their families, and DoD personnel
2. Assist military personnel in achieving their personal and professional educational goals
3. Prevent duplication of services and efforts among the military branches through consolidated program management
4. Offer support of DoD's transition, recruitment, and retention efforts

In its service brochure, DANTES lists its various services and programs. A sample of services include:

• Conducting training workshops
• Delivering various examinations, such as high school equivalency, college credit, and licensure and certification exams
• Providing career assessments and interest inventories
• Coordinating and planning the Department of Defense's Worldwide Education Symposium
• Providing distance learning catalogs
• Managing the Department of Defense's Voluntary Education Management System

DANTES Services and Programs

In its efforts to provide superior educational opportunities to servicemembers, DANTES offers a number of programs and services.

Credentialing Examination Programs. DANTES holds approximately 80 agreements with nationally recognized licensure and certification associations. Example licensing and certification associations include:

• American College of Healthcare Executives
• Board of Certified Safety Professionals
• Citrix
• National Contract Management Association
• U.S. Navy Certification Board

DANTES test sites offer licensure and certification examinations--offering another level of convenience to servicemembers.

Counselor Support Programs. DANTES offers basic skills assessment programs to servicemembers, including 1) career and interest inventories, 2) academic inventories, and 3) guidance instruments. These services are available to military personnel only. Career and academic guidance assessments include:

• Discover Career Planning
• Career Assessment Inventory (CAI)
• Campbell Interest and Skill Survey (CISS)
• Holland's Self-Directed Search (SDS)
• Kuder Career Planning Systems
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Instrument
• Strong Interest Inventory & Skills Confidence Inventory

DANTES Distance Learning (DL) Program. DANTES DL program offers servicemember information about a variety of nontraditional educational opportunities. Servicemembers with duty locations or work schedules do not permit class attendance, the DL program provides alternatives to fulfill degree or course requirements.

Servicemembers using the DL program can earn credit wherever they are stationed, study when their schedules permit, and increase their pay and promotion potential. The DL program provides servicemembers with access to both undergraduate and graduate courses from over 200 educational institutions.

Detailed DL program information can be found in three DANTES catalogs:

• DANTES External Degree Catalog (DEDC). The DEDC helps servicemembers locate regionally accredited institutions that offer degree programs at the certificate, associate's, bachelor's, master's, and doctoral levels.
• DANTES Independent Study Catalog (DISC). The DISC assist servicemembers to locate college courses at regionally accredited institutions. The catalog lists undergraduate and graduate courses by subject area.
• DANTES Catalog of Nationally Accredited Distance Learning Programs (NADLP). The NADLP helps servicemembers locate nationally accredited distance learning programs and courses. It lists both courses, academic degree programs, and vocational-technical certificates available from nationally accredited institutions.

Academic Examination Programs. DANTES sponsors a number of examination programs to assist servicemembers to meet their educational and professional goals. Examination programs include:

• GED
• SAT
• ACT
• GRE
• DSST
• CLEP
• ECE
• GMAT
• Praxis

Examinations are available at over 530 military installations. Approximately 150,000 DANTES-sponsored examinations are held each year.

Higher Education Programs. DANTES manages three Department of Defense contracts with higher education organizations, including the American Council on Education, the Military Installation Voluntary Education Review program, and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.

American Council on Education (ACE). ACE operates the Military Evaluation program which evaluates service school occupations and courses. Servicemembers can earn college credit for their military occupation and training through ACE evaluations, which can then be applied to a vocational certificate or college degree.

Military Installation Voluntary Education Review (MIVER). The MIVER project provides an independent third-party assessment of postsecondary education programs offered to off-duty servicemembers located at military installations throughout the world.

American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU). AASCU conducts Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges (SOC) programs. The SOC consists of approximately 1,800 educational institutions that provide associate's, bachelor's, and graduate level degree programs to servicemembers, their families, and veterans.

SOC was created in 1972 to create educational opportunities for servicemembers who had difficulty completing college degrees due to frequent relocations. Colleges and universities that participate in the SOC must adhere to four criteria:

1. Reasonable transfer of credit. Colleges must prevent excessive loss of previously earned credit as well as avoiding course work duplication.
2. Credit for military training and experience. Colleges and universities must use the ACE guide to the "Evaluation of Educational Experiences in the Armed Services" to evaluate and award college credit for military experience and training.
3. Reduced academic residency. Colleges must limit residency to no more than 25 percent of degree requirements (30 percent for undergraduate degrees offered completely online), and avoid no final semester or year in residence requirements.
4. Credit for nationally-recognized testing programs. Colleges must award academic credit for at least one nationally-recognized program, such as DANTES Subject Standardized Tests or Excelsior College Examinations.

Other DANTES Programs

Reserve Component Programs. DANTES also offers voluntary education programs for the U.S. Reserve forces. Reserve component servicemembers are eligible for a variety of educational assistance to support their participation in both traditional and non-traditional education programs.

Troops to Teachers. The Troops to Teachers program provides referral and counseling services to servicemembers interested in becoming teachers. The program helps servicemembers 1) identify teacher certification requirements, 2) discover programs that lead to certification, and 3) find employment opportunities. Eligible servicemembers can receive financial assistance (stipends or bonuses) to complete their teaching certification and training programs.

Scholarships for Severely Injured Servicemembers. DANTES also includes the Severely Injured Operations Center. This center was created in 2005 to address the health, care, benefits, transition, and recuperation issues for servicemembers returning from service in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Center connects severely injured servicemembers and their spouses interested in pursing diploma, certificates, or college degrees to educational programs and scholarships that could be available to them.

DANTES Program Eligibility

Because DANTES offers numerous services and programs that support all military branches and the Coast Guard, DANTES does not provide general program eligibility requirements. Each service component (Army, Navy, etc.) treat each program differently, meaning eligibility qualifications differ from branch to branch.

DANTES recommends interested servicemembers contact the appropriate DANTES Program Manager in their branch. Additionally, servicemembers should also contact their appropriate Voluntary Education Program representative, including the Air Force and Army Education Center, the Navy College Office, the Marine Lifelong Learning Center, or the Coast Guard Institute.

Applying for DANTES Programs

There are various application procedures for the different DANTES services and programs. The following is an example application process for an Army Reserve servicemember to apply for reimbursement for a DANTES-sponsored professional certification examination.

Step 1. Contact the USAR Test Center for participating professional associations

Step 2. Contact the appropriate professional association for application, study guides, and support materials

Step 3. Review the materials, determine test eligibility, complete and submit the application and applicable fees

Step 4. Upon notification from professional association regarding eligibility, begin exam preparation

Step 5. Work with professional association to schedule the test at the suggested USAR or national test center

Step 6. After receiving examination results, make a copy of proof of completion and official score report, and mail copy to:

DANTES
Code 20F
6490 Saufley Field Road
Pensacola, FL 32509-5243

Step 7. DANTES verifies the payment request and begins processing it for reimbursement. The payment request is sent to the Defense Finance Accounting Service. The Defense Finance Accounting Service sends a check directly to the servicemember at the examination rate listed in the DANTES National Calendar of Certification Tests.