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Attitudes, Incentives, and Test Performance
December 1, 2003
This analysis was conducted in support of the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC) and its project to develop aptitude test norms from a test administration done as part of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97). Our analysis draws on an extensive questionnaire administered to the respondents at the conclusion of their aptitude test. We conducted a regression analysis of test scores as a function of demographics and attitudes as expressed on the questionnaire. We summarize the results as follows: · Incentive payments to persons taking the aptitude tests are essential. · Test takers tried equally hard during a lengthy 9-month testing period. Members of some demographic groups did not try as hard as others.
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Norming Tables for the Student Testing Program (STP97)
December 1, 2003
The Department of Defense sponsors the Student Testing Program (STP), which provides a form of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) for use in high schools and in postsecondary schools. The test scores are used for career exploration in the schools and may also be used to enlist in the armed forces. This document describes our development of national norms for students in the 10th, 11th, and 12th grades as well as postsecondary (2-year) colleges. The norms are based on data collected as part of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97).
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On The Representativeness of Norming Samples for Aptitude Tests
December 1, 2003
This paper discusses the extent to which a sample intended for use in norming aptitude tests must be representative of the underlying population. The work is in support of the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC) and its planned use of data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97) as a norming sample for aptitude tests. We examined data from a previous national administration of aptitude tests to a representative sample of youth known as Profile of American Youth (PAY 80). We regressed aptitude test scores on demographics and concluded that: · A norming sample for aptitude tests must be representative of the target population with respect to age, race/ethnicity, gender, respondent’s education, and mother’s education. It is not necessary that the sample also be representative with respect to number of siblings in the household, degree of urbanization, or census region. Although these factors may be correlated with aptitude scores, if the other five variables are representative, then these factors need not be representative.
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An Evaluation of the Student Testing Program (STP97) Norming Sample
December 1, 2003
This analysis was conducted in support of the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC) and its effort to provide norms for the Student Testing Program (STP). Through the STP, free testing on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) is provided to high schools for use with students in the 10th, 11th, and 12th grades. Norms are also provided for postsecondary students in two-year colleges. The data were collected during a nationwide administration of the ASVAB as part of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97). The objective of our analysis is to evaluate the suitability of the data for use in developing test norms for the STP. We examined the underlying demographics of the data and concluded that the data for students in the 10th, 11th, and 12th grades were suitable for the development of norms. This follows because the sample is representative of the target population with respect to all demographic variables known to be important correlates of test scores. The data sample for the postsecondary students was somewhat problematic but may be improved by weighting on appropriate demographic variables.
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Issues in the Development of a Competency Scale: Implications for Linking Job Performance and Aptitude
April 1, 1987
The selection of test content and the construction of job performance tests has not followed any specific methodology. For determining qualification standards on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB), a more absolute interpretation is required of the performance test scores. This report proposes that a domain-referenced approach is necessary for the linkage of job performance and aptitude in determining standards on the ASVAB. This absolute interpretation of test scores, called competency-based measurement, is based upon two critical requirements of the test construction process: detailed specification of the job requirements domain and appropriate sampling of test content from that domain.
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Methods of Operations Research
June 1, 1974
In World War II, the phrase 'operations research' has come to describe the scientific, quantitative study of operations of war. This report is a first attempt to describe some of the methods which have proved most valuable in the study of warfare, and to indicate possible fruitful lines for further development, military and nonmilitary. The first chapter outlines the scope and methods of the subject. The second chapter discusses the relevant portions of the theory of probability, which is the field of mathematics most useful for this work. The rest of the chapters discuss techniques which have been particularly useful, with illustrations picked from work done in the recent war.
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