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USAFI - United States Armed Forces Institute

Between 1942 and 1974, the United States Armed Forces Institute (USAFI) provided education opportunities which included GED, General Examinations of the College Level and USAFI courses, to service members in the U.S., Alaska, Caribbean, Europe, Hawaii and Japan. More than 70 colleges and universities, including City University of New York and University of California at Berkeley, cooperated with USAFI in providing materials and offering credit. USAFI was headquartered at 102 North Hamilton Street in Madison, Wisconsin.

When it began operations, April 1, 1942, it was called “The Army Institute” and was a mutual collaboration of the Joint Army-Navy Committee on Welfare and Recreation and the National Committee on Education and Defense (of the American Council on Education).

For the spring and summer of 1942, The Army Institute provided educational opportunities only to enlisted Army personnel, but that September its services were extended to enlisted members of the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard.

In February 1943, the name was changed to United States Armed Forces Institute (USAFI).

At the end of World War II, Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson directed that USAFI be established as a peacetime educational activity. In 1964, there were 263,937 active enrollments.

The stated mission of USAFI was “to provide common services and materials by which the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard may supplement, for members of their commands, educational opportunities in subjects normally taught in civilian academic institutions, in order that the individual may render efficient service in his present assignment, increase his capacities for assuming greater responsibility, and satisfy his intellectual desires.”

Courses were offered as correspondence or group-study. Enrollment rules specified that any USAFI correspondence courses be completed within twelve months of beginning.

USAFI testing was provided for free to soldiers on active duty. USAFI testing included Subject Standardized Tests, General Educational Development (GED) tests, and USAFI Achievement tests.

USAFI Subject Standardized tests were designed for students desiring credit for the 200 courses offered by USAFI. These tests served as end-of-course exams, but the testee did not necessarily need to have been enrolled in the USAFI course; those who studied independently of USAFI enrollment also could take the test and receive credit.

USAFI GED tests were for high school level and college level. The college level GED tests measured the extent to which the student attained the equivalent of a college freshman-level education, which may have been obtained through survey courses or experience in the subject area covered by the tests. The USAFI GED testing program was detailed in a publication of the American Council on Education, “Conclusions and Recommendations on a Study of the General Educational Development Testing Program, published in 1956.

USAFI Achievement tests were designed to determine grade-level achievement of military personnel in grades 4-6 and 7-9, in order to address the 28 percent of enlisted men who had not completed all twelve grades of education.