Mission
The United States Army NCO Academy (USANCOA) Quality Assurance Office (QAO) conducts continuous, systematic internal and external evaluations of all USANCOA courses and assists the Army Quality Assurance Program (AQAP) Office with Staff Assistant Visits (SAV) and accreditations of Noncommissioned Officer Academies, Center of Excellence (CoEs), Schools, Reginal Training Institute (RTIs), and Multi-Functional Training Institutive (MFTUs) worldwide IAW the AQAP’s established Army Enterprise Accreditation Standards (AEAS). QAO provides proponent leadership feedback on the Professional Military Education (PME) of NCOs to ensure proficiency and relevancy as the Army transforms during wartime.
Vision
The Quality Assurance Office provides an Army at War with a professional, world class Quality Assurance Office, which supports and compliments the efforts of USANCOA, the AQAP, T2COM, Combined Arms Command (CAC), and Army University. QAO deploys warrior-focused evaluators who assist all NCOAs worldwide with a commonsense approach and an assistance driven, team-building attitude.
Evaluated Courses
USANCOA’s Noncommissioned Officer Development System (NCOPDS) training and functional education programs include the Basic Leader Course (BLC), the Advanced Leader Course-Leader Core Competencies (ALC-LCC), Senior Leader Course-Leader Core Competencies (SLC-LCC), the Battle Staff Noncommissioned Officer Course (BSNCOC), the BSNCOC-VTT, Master Leader Course (MLC), Master Leader Course Distributed Learning (MLC-DL), the Sergeants Major Course-Resident (SMC-R), the SMC Nonresident Course Distributed Learning (SMC-DL), the International Military Students Pre-Course (IMSPC), the Spouses Leadership Development Course (SLDC), the Commandant’s Pre-Command Course (CPCC), and the USANCOA Fellowship Program.
Functions
- Functions as the liaison between USANCOA, AQAP Office, CAC, 33 NCOAs, and proponent school QAOs/Quality Assurance Elements (QAEs).
- Responsible for the Commandant's Organizational Inspection Program (OIP) and the Risk Management Control Program (RMIC).
- Advises the USANCOA Commandant and USANCOA Directors on the quality assurance process, exceptions to policy, requests for waivers, proponent (common core) accreditation issues, and related issues, both internal and external.
- Plans and coordinates the annual Master Evaluation Plan.
- Designs, elicits faculty input, and develops internal and external surveys for all assigned courses and other USANCOA organizations as needed. Publishes approved surveys to students via URL.
- Serves as an evaluator on the AQAP Office’s Staff Assistant Visit (SAV) and Accreditation Teams for BLC, BSNCOC, BSNCOC-VTT, MLC, ALC-C3 products and SLC-C3 products at all NCO Academies, COEs, Schools, Proponents, Reserve Component Training Battalions, and Multi-Functional Training Brigades, as applicable.
- Conducts research and uses evaluation methodologies, statistical analysis and evaluation instruments (i.e., tests and survey instruments, field feedback questionnaires, statistical measurement and software instruments) to predict the effectiveness and efficiency of training implementation, student achievement, and relevance of training products to the operational environment.
- Evaluates the analysis, design, development, and implementation phases of the Systems Approach to Training (SAT) to ensure compliance with regulatory guidance; monitors the identification and approval of critical tasks, the use of task analysis data as the foundation of the training, and implementation of sound management practices.
- Analyzes concepts, plans, and actions, conducts research, coordinates information for input, and provides feedback on evaluation of training development, doctrine development, and Combat development interface, curricula, methodology, and effectiveness/efficiency of the SAT process.
- Prepares and provides briefs and/or papers to explain, market, and justify evaluation strategies and results to internal and external agencies. Apply findings to develop new methods and procedures; makes recommendations to improve training and training development processes.
- Plans and conducts a wide range of validity and reliability studies and surveys of training course design and materials; evaluates for applicability, adequacy, technical accuracy, and accomplishment of training objectives.
- Resolves systemic problems by conducting surveys, collecting and interpreting interview data, and establishing/participating with small groups to resolve problems and/or improve processes and products.
- Designs, develops, distributes, analyzes and summarizes questionnaires for course evaluation, including both in-house questionnaires and questionnaires sent to graduates in the field.