ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with an examination of assessment in professional military education (PME) and its role in the Army’s preparation. The Command and General Staff College is used as a case study to illustrate the assessment-embedded culture. PME refers to rank-specific education that occurs throughout a soldier’s career. The chapter illustrates the transfer of learning assessment by focusing on the Army’s system to evaluate organizational performance using training evaluations at the National Training Center (NTC) in California. Although some administrators and faculty of colleges and universities may view assessment of learning as an addon to responsibilities, the military illustrates how a culture of quality can be embedded as part of the fabric. The NTC places units in an austere desert environment where they are subjected to an independently thinking, highly capable opposing force that presents Army forces with multiple dilemmas to test units’ mastery of fundamental skills and identify gaps in training and expertise.
