The ASVAB is Required in more than a Thousand Schools
The invasion of student privacy associated with ASVAB testing in the high schools has been well documented by mainstream media sources, from USA Today to NPR News. The practice of mandatory testing, however, has received scant mainstream media attention.
"All Juniors will report to the cafeteria on Monday at 8:10 a.m. to take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery. Whether you’re planning on college, a technical school, or you’re just not sure yet, the ASVAB Career Exploration Program can provide you with important information about your skills, abilities and interests – and help put you on the right course for a satisfying career." This announcement or one very similar to it greets students in more than a thousand high schools across the country.
Imagine you're Captain Eric W. Johnson, United States Navy, Commander, United States Military Entrance Processing Command, Little Rock Arkansas and you had the complete cooperation of the Arkansas Department of Education to recruit high school students into the U.S. military. The first step you might take is to require juniors in public high schools to take the ASVAB. ASVAB results are good for enlistment purposes for up to two years. The ASVAB offers a treasure trove of information on students and allows the state's top recruiter to pre-screen the entire crop of incoming potential recruits. "Sit down, shut up, and take this test. That's an order!"
142 high schools forced more than 10,000 children to take this military test without parental consent in Arkansas last year. "We've always done it that way and no one has ever complained," explained one school counselor.
The Army recruiter's handbook calls for military recruiters to take ownership of schools. This is one way they're doing it. The U.S. Army Recruiting Command ranks each high school based on how receptive it is to military recruiters. Schools are awarded extra points when they make the ASVAB mandatory. See page 25 of: USAREC pub. 601-107
Meanwhile, military recruiting regulations specifically prohibit that the test be made mandatory.
See Page 3-1 of USMEPCOM Reg. 601-4 "Voluntary aspect of the student ASVAB: School and student participation in the Student Testing Program is voluntary. DOD personnel are prohibited from suggesting to school officials or any other influential individual or group that the test be made mandatory. Schools will be encouraged to recommend most students participate in the ASVAB CEP. If the school requires all students of a particular group or grade to test, the MEPS will support it." It's a pretty thin line to us and it appears the military has crossed it.
Whose schools are they?
See the section at the top right of this page entitled, “View your state’s ASVAB Statistics” to access a list of high schools in your state that allow the military to administer the ASVAB. Examine the "Mandatory" row. If there is an entry in the column, that school requires testing. If there's no entry, you can double check the Pentagon. Hundreds of schools require testing in states across the country and these are not identified as being mandatory in the official ASVAB data.
For instance, the information released by the DoD for the ’09-’10 school year shows there is no mandatory testing in Ohio, however, it is possible, using a simple Google search tool, in this case -- ("k12.oh.us" asvab "all juniors") to uncover hundreds of schools that require students to take the ASVAB that are not reported by the Pentagon. Simply substitute the abbreviation for your state. This contradictory evidence must be collected and disseminated to activists, policy makers, and local and national media outlets.
