MCMC – A Talented Pit Crew with Lots of Octane

The mission of the Multi-State Collaborative on Military Credit (MCMC) is to facilitate an interstate partnership of 13 states, and to translate competencies acquired by veterans through military training and experiences toward college credentials. States exchange information and share best practices in the areas of articulation of credit, certification and licensure, communication, and data and technology. The Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC) provides operational and administrative support for the MCMC.

Three primary goals of the MCMC follow.

 1.         Promote and increase postsecondary degree completion and streamline paths for servicemembers seeking licenses and certificates.

The MCMC states have continually promoted postsecondary degree completion. Many accomplished this by creating and/or revising institutional web pages for Servicemembers and Veterans. Several states held special conferences or meetings to provide in-person assistance.

Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin have developed a mechanism by which the persistence and graduation rate of Servicemembers can be tracked over time. By June 30, 2017, Nebraska, and Ohio will have done the same. This information will assist higher education institutions in determining which programs are needed to enable Servicemembers and Veterans to graduate on time.

Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin have three or more state licensing boards that are willing to accept military training and experience as a way to accelerate progress toward earning a licensure or certificate thus leading to a smooth transition into the civilian workforce. Kentucky and Wisconsin are also expected to meet this goal by June 30, 2017.

2.         Support servicemembers through key educational transitions.

The Council on Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) and the MCMC collaborated to create Valuing Military Learning - A Guide to Military Prior Learning Assessment and More. The online resource provides direction for military personnel in applying and enrolling in college, obtaining college credit for military learning, and funding for their education http://bit.ly/MHECPLA_NASPA.

The MCMC’s Licensure and Certification Work Group has compiled a bridge program inventory and can be found at http://bit.ly/MCMC_bridgeprograms. This inventory covers areas from healthcare to law enforcement. The inventory is updated on a regular basis.

3.         Create networks of communications, technology, data collection and analysis, individuals and agencies that will support the accomplishment of Goals 1 and 2.

Communication is very important. The MCMC project coordinator regularly sends out project updates to all participants of the initiative and checks in with committee members. The work groups coordinate with each other to share feedback on projects and make suggestions. After each MCMC-hosted webinar, MHEC sends an evaluation in order to receive comments and advice on what other webinar topics they would be interested in.

 The MCMC Communication and Outreach Work Group has created a long list of groups and organizations that relate to MCMC’s work. Many distributed information or joined our webinars. Our relationship with Solutions for Information Design (SOLID) has been extremely beneficial for our member states. This led to us obtaining important statistics and data for our states. Specifically, we were able to gain access to strength and separation data on military occupation codes (MOCs) for the MCMC states. This information has helped our work groups determine which bridge or accelerated programs might be needed in their states to seamlessly fulfill civilian employment opportunities.

While major strides forward have been made, more work needs to be done. Through the work group meetings, conversations, and surveys they have learned what they didn’t know at the beginning. For example, the survey the Data, Systems, and Technology work group disseminated a survey which helped discover that while several of the states were tracking Servicemembers and Veterans, the definitions in collecting data and the data points captured were different. Due to this information the Data, Systems, and Technology work group is working with the Common Education Data Standards (CEDS) project and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) to work thorough this and come up with common definitions and data collection points; though this will take some time. The MCMC’s Articulation of Academic Credit work group continues to have conversations with the American Council on Education (ACE) regarding college credit recommendations for military education and how additional information provided by ACE can potentially aid colleges and universities award credit to the appropriate degree program students are enrolled in.

The MCMC utilizes conference calls as much as possible, but meets at least once a year for a face-to-face meeting. The annual meeting consists of invited special guest speakers, discussion of emerging issues, and reviewing the grant metrics to ensure success.

Part of the beauty of the Collaborative is sharing of information with one another. This saves time for all of the MCMC states by avoiding pitfalls others have already experienced and the opportunity to share successes for those who are looking for methods to support Servicemembers and Veterans.