The screening process included having the candidates take, and pass, the GED (high school equivalency test). Last year, the army took in 5,900 screened drop outs, and they had a six-month attrition rate of 6.2 percent. This meant that, for a variety of reasons, 6.2 percent of these recruits left the army within six months. Compare this to 10.3 percent for unscreened dropouts, and 5.6 percent for high school grads.
Interesting. Do those data support the contention that many students drop out just because they have the misfortune of attending bad schools?
I had several good friends in the Air Force who were HS drop outs. All of them were very intelligent but they also had one other thing in common. They were maverics... adventurers. I think there is a significant number of very bright students who get bored with school, not only the academics but the whole "system". Luckily in the AF my friends were able to start taking college courses, which of course they got great grades in. Two of them have since gotten out and become successful computer programmers, and one of them is now an Officer. I am not sure that any traditional school system could of kept them in High School, but I do no that they didn't suffer fools easily, and that being surrounded by mediocre students only increased their distaste for the system.
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