Research Summaries

Back Who Uses TA: Variations in TA Use Due to Demographic Characteristics and Job Requirements

Fiscal Year 2014
Division Research & Sponsored Programs
Department Naval Research Program
Investigator(s) Pema, Elda
Sponsor NPS Naval Research Program (Navy)
Summary The study will investigate which observable background characteristics affect the likelihood of participating in the TA program. First, the study will focus on demographic characteristics of participating and non-participants. The goal is to determine whether there are statistically significant variations by gender, race, age, and educational background, and rating. Any observed differences could be due to varying preferences for continued education across different demographic groups. Alternatively, they could also be due to differences in opportunities for education in the private sector, and financial constraints that may have prompted some demographic groups to join the Navy for the purpose of exploiting the educational opportunities offered.
Next, the analysis will investigate to what extent the job limits the flexibility to take off-duty post-secondary classes. More specifically, certain ratings may be more conducive to taking TA courses. Some ratings may be more likely to be deployed, thus disrupting courses already underway, or inhibiting enrollment altogether. Other ratings may have more limited access to key infrastructure such as educational counseling services, WebTA tools, and academic support tools provided by the Defense Activity for NonTraditional Education Support (DANTES). Because the NP ACE program provides education opportunities to deployed recruits, the study will include both TA and NPACE participation in this analysis.
Finally, it will be of interest to separate whether sailors in certain ratings are less likely to participate in TA because of job demands or because of taste for continued education. One way to separate the two hypotheses is to observe the TA-participation behavior of sailors who switch ratings. A substantial number of sailors do change their ratings, and, if their TA participation varies statistically under one rating versus another, then we would be able to conclude that it is indeed job demands that affect TA participation, rather than individual unobserved characteristics.
All differences in TA use will be evaluated with regards to both participation in the program, extent of participation (measured by number of courses or credit hours), and success in courses taken (measured by course completion or grades). These measures would allow us to assess the full range of variations in TA use by various recruits.
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Data Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal