Research for Teir

The Conference Report of the National Defense Authorization Act of Fiscal Year 1999 directed the establishment of a 5-year pilot program requiring the Services to treat graduates of homeschools, and graduates of the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe program who possess a GED, as Tier 1 for enlistment purposes. This interim study evaluates how these recruits compare with other recruits. Home school graduates with AFQT scores of 50 and above have 12-month attrition levels comparable to those of high school diploma graduates. While the majority of home school recruits have high AFQT scores, those with lower scores have high attrition levels. While ChalleNGe GEDs in the Navy and Air Force have very high attrition levels, those in the Army and Marine Corps have quite low attrition. In addition, we find that the number of recruits in Tiers 2 and 3 in each Service is significantly greater than that captured in DMDC files.