By Information Warfare Training Command Monterey Public Affairs
MONTEREY, Calif. – Information Warfare Training Command (IWTC) Monterey recently completed an update of its strategy for improving student performance at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC).
The update is the product of a larger review of the commanding officer’s strategy for improving Sailor performance and recognition, which combines academic performance goals with the Navy Military Training (NMT) program. The strategy gives the command a unified vision under which staff are able to drive the academic and military development of all IWTC Monterey students.
IWTC Monterey initially developed this strategy in 2015 during a period when its Sailors were underperforming academically when compared to their service counterparts at the DLIFLC. The impact of the new strategy was dramatic. Proficiency levels began to climb and by 2016, students more than doubled the number of academic awards earned. In 2018, Navy students were the top academic performers at the DLIFLC for the first time since 2009.
IWTC Monterey’s crew includes more than 500 students who are engaged in intensive foreign language training at the DLIFLC, which is widely considered to be among the most difficult and demanding schools within the Department of Defense (DoD). The command’s strategy concisely lays out what is expected of these students and challenges IWTC Monterey’s staff and instructors to assist students in attaining higher proficiency.
According to the strategy letter, “Every action IWTC Monterey leaders take, or fail to take, has an impact on our outcomes, both academic and military.” This calls upon leaders to be models of the expected standards and to continuously explore and communicate innovative ways to achieve goals.
This recent revision of the strategy maintains a focus on the command’s expectation that its students achieve foreign language proficiency above the minimum DLIFLC graduation standard. Currently, DLIFLC graduates must achieve scores of 2 (equating to a limited working proficiency) in listening and reading on the defense language proficiency test. However, with an eye toward the needs of the DoD, the DLIFLC is working to increase the graduation standard to 2+ in listening and reading. These seemingly small increases actually represent significant leaps in proficiency, requiring appropriately significant changes in the way students are developed.
The strategy serves as a roadmap for each student’s 9-16 month journey through their DLIFLC program, addressing their development from initial seat assignment through pre-class preparation and graduation. Perhaps most importantly, this critical policy document mandates student support programs like the command’s foreign language tutoring and student mentor programs.
IWTC Monterey’s strategy for improving Sailor performance and recognition continues to set the course for staff and student alike. It will continue to be reviewed and adjusted every 1-2 years as requirements, capabilities, and students change. The goal of the strategy remains to encourage and support Sailors to achieve higher proficiency while also training them to serve honorably in the information warfare community.
IWTC Monterey, as part of the Center for Information Warfare Training, provides a continuum of foreign language training to Navy personnel, which prepares them to conduct information warfare across the full spectrum of military operations.
For more on Information Warfare Training Command Monterey, visit http://www.netc.navy.mil/centers/ciwt/IWTCmonterey/ and http://www.monterey.army.mil/Service_Units/IWTC_Monterey.html, or find them on Facebook.
With four schoolhouse commands, two detachments, and training sites throughout the United States and Japan, CIWT is recognized as Naval Education and Training Command’s top learning center for the past three years. Training over 21,000 students every year, CIWT delivers trained information warfare professionals to the Navy and joint services. CIWT also offers more than 200 courses for cryptologic technicians, intelligence specialists, information systems technicians, electronics technicians, and officers in the information warfare community.
For more news from Center for Information Warfare Training enterprise, visit www.navy.mil/local/cid/, www.netc.navy.mil/centers/ciwt/, www.facebook.com/NavyCIWT, or www.twitter.com/NavyCIWT.