Research for Waiver

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Does Education Reform Make Recruiting More Difficult?
October 1, 2005

In this research, we use Census data to examine how the pool of potential recruits has changed in the face of changing education requirements. Next, we examine how the performance of Sailors and Marines has changed in response to these requirements. We find that education requirements often have nuanced effects on the civilian population—helping some groups while harming others. Within the Navy and the Marine Corps, education requirements have had only muted effects to date. In general, attrition rates are not influenced by these policies, but some measures of quality (i.e., AFQT scores) are. Finally, we find that the growth of those holding alternate credentials in the Navy is not related to education requirements at all but instead is related to the recruiting environment.

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Pre-Service Smoking and First-Year Attrition
March 1, 2003
This briefing examines the relationship between pre-Service smoking behavior and first-year attrition. We report four main findings: 1) Recruits who reported that they smoked before enlisting had significantly higher RTC- and 12-month attrition rates than those who did not. 2) Attrition differences between pre-Service smokers and nonsmokers did not disappear after boot camp, which indicates that the RTC ban on smoking was not the primary factor contributing to higher attrition rates for recruits who smoked before enlisting. 3) Attrition differences by pre-Service smoking behavior were comparable to or greater than differences in attrition by tier category and by waiver status. 4) There was no interaction effect between educational tier group and pre-Service smoking. However, higher pre-Service smoking rates for Tier II/III recruits increased their average attrition relative to Tier I recruits. Based on these findings we recommended that the following questions might be addressed in future research: What is the true link between attrition and pre- and post-enlistment smoking behavior? Do attrition differences by pre-Service smoking behavior vary by season? Why is the smoking rate for the Navy sample twice that of the national average?
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