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Fulfilling its mandate, with opportunities to become stronger

• Overall, the LTC Program is meeting the requirements of its authorizing legislation.
• The infrastructure at institutions of higher education provides LTCs benefits, but with trade-offs.
• As expected, LTC practices vary, with room for improvement to encourage a more cohesive and collaborative professional community.
• LTCs varied in how they measured outcomes.
• Variations in LTC capacity utilization suggest that DoD partners are not taking full advantage of the program.

The U.S. Department of Defense's (DoD's) Language Training Center (LTC) Program leverages the expertise and infrastructure of institutions of higher education to train DoD personnel in language, culture, and regional area studies. The Defense Language and National Security Education Office (DLNSEO) asked the RAND Corporation to examine the LTC Program, which was established in 2011 and included centers at nine universities in the fiscal year 2017 grant cycle. This evaluation was meant to assist DoD in making informed decisions about the viability and continuation of the program. Through site visits to each of the nine centers, interviews, and analysis of program data, RAND researchers found that the LTC Program is meeting the vast majority of the requirements of its authorizing legislation: building skills in language and area studies, providing language training in critical and strategic languages for operational readiness, and using alternative language training delivery systems to provide training to a wide variety of DoD partners.

A key recommendation is for DLNSEO and its administrative partner, the Institute of International Education, to encourage each LTC to articulate objectives that go beyond provision of training and represent meaningful training outcomes for the DoD partners and students. The challenges that lie ahead will be to (1) encourage increased consistency across the program in areas where it makes sense while still providing opportunities for uniqueness and creativity at each of the LTCs and (2) increase meaningful measurement of outcomes while continuing to support responsiveness, innovation, and, potentially, further growth.

• Chapter One

  Introduction

• Chapter Two

  Overview of the Language Training Center Program

• Chapter Three

  Language Training Center Objectives and Goals

• Chapter Four

  Teachers: Recruiting, Training, and Evaluation

• Chapter Five

  Measuring Outcomes

• Chapter Six

  Professional Community and Collaboration

• Chapter Seven

  Language Training Center Costs and Resources

• Chapter Eight

  Operating Within Institutions of Higher Education

• Chapter Nine

  Conclusions and Recommendations

• Appendix A

  Student Interview and Focus Group Questions

• Appendix B

  Instructor Interview and Focus Group Questions

• Appendix C

  DoD Partner Interview Questions

• Appendix D

  Language Training Center Administrator Interview Questions

• Appendix E

  DLNSEO Leadership and Staff Interview Questions

• Appendix F

  IIE Leadership and Staff Interview Questions

• Appendix G

  Program Costs: Language Training Center Administrative Interview Questions