Twenty-first century is seeing changes in the nature of work, the workforce, and employment practices. These changes, along with increased employer need to select employees who will have the best fit with particular jobs in order to increase return on investment, are leading employers toward greater use of preemployment assessments. The purpose of…

The Army Skill Qualification Tests (SQT's) were designed to determine levels of competence in performance of the tasks crucial to an enlisted soldier's occupational specialty. SQT's are performance-based, criterion-referenced measures which offer two advantages over traditional proficiency and achievement testing programs: test content can be made…

Focusing on assessment centers, this chapter is one of seven in a report that examines the assessment of occupational competence. Assessment centers are presented first in a historical context (their origins in personality theory), through which their evolution is traced and examined. What follows is a description of current assessment center…

One of seven sections of a report that examines the assessment of occupational competence, this chapter presents competence assessment as it is defined in practice by selection techniques currently used by employers. The chapter begins with a discussion of the major techniques used in employee selection, focusing on the competencies employers…

Reports the results of a simulation-based analysis of Black and Hispanic public school teacher employment in Texas. The simulation reflects recently instituted teacher testing requirements in mathematics and language competence and projects how the program is likely to affect the racial-ethnic composition of public school teachers in Texas over…

In Arkansas, in reaction to complaints about traditional methods of selection for promotion, the civil service commission has chosen to base promotions in the police department solely on scores on locally-developed objective tests. Items developed and loaded into a computerized test bank were selected from six areas of responsibility: (1) criminal…

The Assessment of Readiness for the Professional Practice of Ministry project, sponsored by the Association of Theological Schools, studied methods for determining a person's readiness to enter the mimtry and perform effectively. Simultaneously, the Lutheran Seminarian Project assessed the needs and strengths of beginning seminary students. Both…

This is the sixth and final report of the National Research Council's Committee on the Performance of Military Personnel on the Joint-Service Job Performance Measurement/Enlistment Standards (JPM) Project, a project designed to develop measures of performance for entry-level military jobs so that enlistment standards could be linked to performance…

Following a workshop on "Innovations in Employment Testing that Improve Validity and Reduce Adverse Impact," the City of Louisville (Kentucky) implemented a strategy to develop a comprehensive testing and recruiting program for police recruits. To improve candidate expectations and preparation, the following activities were undertaken:…

Lessons derived from the Job Performance Measurement (JPM) Project, which is overseen by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Force Management and Personnel, for educational assessment are explored. The JPM Project was initiated to develop high fidelity measures of performance on the job that can be used to evaluate personnel…

The 75 papers included in these conference proceedings discuss testing conducted by the different brances of the armed forces. The importance of relating necessary job skills to the skills measured by the tests administered to the job applicants is emphasized. Various evaluation methods--including peer rating, aptitude testing, adaptive testing,…