Like the other services, the U.S. Army's Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) units are disproportionately located in the South, in urban areas, and in larger schools. Changing this distribution is challenging for several reasons. RAND researchers conducted a study to inform the Army about where it might locate new, sustainable sites and how to grow the program's instructor cadre.

Expanding the Geographic Footprint of Army JROTC

An Analysis of Instructor and School Perspectives, Site Sustainability, and the Instructor Pipeline

Melanie A. Zaber, Peter Schirmer, Christine Mulhern, Jessica Welburn Paige, Tobias Sytsma, Yael Katz, Peggy Wilcox, Elizabeth D. Steiner, Stephani L. Wrabel, Christina Panis, et al.

ResearchPublished Sep 25, 2024

The Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) is a citizenship and leadership educational program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) in more than 3,000 secondary schools across the United States and around the world. Cadets who join JROTC take classes taught by former service members in addition to their regular studies and participate in out-of-school-time activities similar to a club or sport. The U.S. Army operates about one-half of all JROTC units and has units in all 50 states, several U.S. territories, and around the world. Like the other services, the Army's JROTC units are disproportionately located in the South, in urban areas, and in larger schools; this has been noted in congressional legislation and in a recent Army memo focused on modernizing the JROTC program. Changing this distribution is challenging, however, because of historical geographic patterns, funding constraints, and the need for schools and districts to apply to host a JROTC unit.

The Assistant Secretary of the Army, Manpower & Reserve Affairs asked RAND Arroyo Center to inform the Army about where it might locate new, sustainable sites and how to grow the program's instructor cadre. The research team used a mixed-methods approach: a review of literature on JROTC, post-service careers, and teacher pathways; analysis of public data on school and community characteristics in conjunction with service data on JROTC site locations; analysis of instructors' prior Army careers compared with non-instructor careers; and use of counterfactual simulations to understand potential implications of recent proposed or passed legislation.

Key Findings

Funding constraints limit the pace at which site location can diversify

  • Turnover of sites is relatively low.
  • A simulation adding 1,000 new sites predicted to be sustainable produced a noticeable change in geographic footprint.

School and community factors associated with site sustainability are concentrated in the South, where Army JROTC (AJROTC) is already overrepresented

  • Lower school enrollment, urban settings, not being a charter school, and a larger local share of veterans contribute to site sustainability.

Instructor availability further constrains site location

  • Anecdotal evidence indicates that career interest, connection to the JROTC program, and location of open positions affects interest in becoming an instructor.
  • Most interviewees learned about the position through personal connections rather than official communication.

Soldiers with recruiting experience are especially likely to become AJROTC instructors

  • Expanding the diversity of recruiters could enhance the diversity of AJROTC instructors.
  • Changes in the Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act could expand the pool of former service members eligible to be instructors.

Despite JROTC's benefits, some members of the public, including veterans, have low awareness or negative perceptions of the program

  • Prior work associates JROTC participation with increased high school graduation rates, opportunities to develop leadership skills, and deterred involvement in unhealthy behaviors; JROTC instructors report largely positive experiences.
  • School leaders surveyed in prior research also report generally favorable views of JROTC among their school communities.
  • JROTC's history of exclusion and perceptions of school-based recruiting contributed to some negative impressions.
  • Transitioning and retiring service members are often unaware of the program.

Recommendations

  • U.S. Army Cadet Command (USACC) should use the prospect list from RAND's site models to select likely sustainable sites for outreach in high-priority areas.
  • Factors for selecting new sites should emphasize attributes of schools that are likely to benefit from JROTC and to achieve Army goals rather than sustainability.
  • To grow and diversify the instructor cadre, USACC could advocate use of such a tool as FIT-Choice to screen for interest in teaching among service members who are approaching retirement or separation.
  • USACC could make greater use of the flexibilities afforded by law to DoD and the services in managing JROTC.
  • The Army should request more funding for the program if it wants to meaningfully diversify its unit sites.
  • Congress should continue to express interest in the geographic and demographic representation of the program.

Topics

Document Details

Citation

RAND Style Manual
Zaber, Melanie A., Peter Schirmer, Christine Mulhern, Jessica Welburn Paige, Tobias Sytsma, Yael Katz, Peggy Wilcox, Elizabeth D. Steiner, Stephani L. Wrabel, Christina Panis, Sarah Baker, Michael Preczewski, and Kristin J. Leuschner, Expanding the Geographic Footprint of Army JROTC: An Analysis of Instructor and School Perspectives, Site Sustainability, and the Instructor Pipeline, RAND Corporation, RR-A2139-1, 2024. As of October 10, 2024: https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA2139-1.html
Chicago Manual of Style
Zaber, Melanie A., Peter Schirmer, Christine Mulhern, Jessica Welburn Paige, Tobias Sytsma, Yael Katz, Peggy Wilcox, Elizabeth D. Steiner, Stephani L. Wrabel, Christina Panis, Sarah Baker, Michael Preczewski, and Kristin J. Leuschner, Expanding the Geographic Footprint of Army JROTC: An Analysis of Instructor and School Perspectives, Site Sustainability, and the Instructor Pipeline. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2024. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA2139-1.html.
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This research was prepared for the United States Army and conducted within the Personnel, Training, and Health Program of RAND Arroyo Center.

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