Impact of High School Quality on the Conduct and Attrition of Enlisted Marines
Abstract
This study investigates the impact of high school quality and peer group characteristics on the misconduct and attrition of enlisted Marines. Multivariate regression models employ personnel data from the USMC Total Force Data Warehouse on 22,177 enlisted Marines who joined the USMC during fiscal year 2013 and high school identifiers from the Common Core of Data. Misconduct incidents per year of service, propensity to commit misconduct, propensity to attrite within six years, and propensity to attrite under undesirable circumstances are regressed on high school quality, the number of fellow Marines from the same high school, and demographic breakdown of those fellow Marines. The model results show that high school quality, in itself, does not impact misconduct or attrition. Attending a high-quality high school does, however, amplify the negative impact that a higher Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) score has on propensity to attrite within six years. High school enlistment peer group size does not significantly impact misconduct or attrition. The percentage of high school enlistment peer group that consists of female, black, or Hispanic Marines does not impact the misconduct or attrition outcomes for those groups. We recommend that the USMC not invest time or resources toward recruiting Marines specifically from high-quality high schools, recruiting larger peer groups from each school, or achieving a specific demographic breakdown of recruits from each school.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 2021
- Accession Number
- AD1150740
Entities
People
- Alexander M. Pincus
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School