6.12.2005
Army Recruiting More High School Dropouts to Meet Goals (NYTimes.com)
By ERIC SCHMITT
Published: June 11, 2005
WASHINGTON, June 10 - The Army is having to turn to more high school dropouts and lower-achieving applicants to fill its ranks, accepting hundreds of recruits in recent months who would have been rejected a year ago, according to Army statistics.
Eight months into the recruiting year, the percentage of new recruits in the Army without a high school diploma has risen to 10 percent, the upper limit of what the Army is willing to accept, from 8 percent last year. The percentage of recruits with scores in the lowest acceptable range on the standardized test used to screen potential soldiers has also risen to 2 percent, also reaching the Army's limit, from slightly more than a half-percent last year, reaching the highest level since 2001.
The number of lower-achieving recruits is a relatively small part of the more than 41,000 recruits who have signed an enlistment contract or entered basic training since October. Officials emphasized that this year's recruits still met or exceeded the Army's quality goals, and that the service would not lower its standards to meet its overall enlistment target of 80,000 recruits.
But as the Army formally announced Friday that it had missed its recruiting goal for the fourth consecutive month, military personnel specialists said the profile of this year's enlistees raised questions about recruit quality, and whether the Army would fail to reach its annual recruiting goal for the first time since 1999.
"The overall quality of the force today is lower than it was a year ago," said David R. Segal, who directs the Center for Research on Military Organization at the University of Maryland. "It means they can anticipate more problem situations with recruits in the training cycle."
(More ... Army Recruiting More High School Dropouts to Meet Goals - New York Times) ¶ 13:21
Published: June 11, 2005
WASHINGTON, June 10 - The Army is having to turn to more high school dropouts and lower-achieving applicants to fill its ranks, accepting hundreds of recruits in recent months who would have been rejected a year ago, according to Army statistics.
Eight months into the recruiting year, the percentage of new recruits in the Army without a high school diploma has risen to 10 percent, the upper limit of what the Army is willing to accept, from 8 percent last year. The percentage of recruits with scores in the lowest acceptable range on the standardized test used to screen potential soldiers has also risen to 2 percent, also reaching the Army's limit, from slightly more than a half-percent last year, reaching the highest level since 2001.
The number of lower-achieving recruits is a relatively small part of the more than 41,000 recruits who have signed an enlistment contract or entered basic training since October. Officials emphasized that this year's recruits still met or exceeded the Army's quality goals, and that the service would not lower its standards to meet its overall enlistment target of 80,000 recruits.
But as the Army formally announced Friday that it had missed its recruiting goal for the fourth consecutive month, military personnel specialists said the profile of this year's enlistees raised questions about recruit quality, and whether the Army would fail to reach its annual recruiting goal for the first time since 1999.
"The overall quality of the force today is lower than it was a year ago," said David R. Segal, who directs the Center for Research on Military Organization at the University of Maryland. "It means they can anticipate more problem situations with recruits in the training cycle."
(More ... Army Recruiting More High School Dropouts to Meet Goals - New York Times) ¶ 13:21
