The Army needs the best personnel to meet the emerging demands of the 21st century. Accordingly, the Army is seeking recommendations on new experimental predictor measures that could enhance entry-level Soldier selection and classification decisions, in particular, measures of non-cognitive attributes (e.g., interests, values, temperament). The U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences (ARI) is conducting a longitudinal criterion-related validation research effort to collect data to inform these recommendations. Data on experimental predictors were collected from about 11,000 Soldiers. Training criterion data were collected for differing subsets of the predictor sample in the first of three planned criterion measurement points. Soldiers were drawn from two samples: (a) job-specific samples targeting six entry-level Military Occupational Specialties (MOS) and (b) an Army-wide sample with no MOS-specific requirements. In the analyses reported here, the value of the experimental predictor measures to enhance new Soldier selection was examined. Overall, many of the experimental predictors significantly incremented the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) in predicting Soldier performance and retention during training. In addition, the experimental predictors generally exhibited smaller subgroup mean differences (by gender, race, and ethnicity) than the AFQT.

Beginning in the early 1980s and continuing through the middle 1990s, the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences (ARI) sponsored a comprehensive research and development program to evaluate and enhance the Army's personnel selection and classification procedures. This was a set of interrelated efforts, collectively known as Project A. Project A had a number of basic and applied research objectives pertaining to selection and classification decision making. It focused on the entire selection and classification system for Army enlisted personnel and addressed research questions that can be generalized to other personnel systems. It involved the development and evaluation of a comprehensive array of predictor and criterion measures using samples of tens of thousands of individuals in a broad range of jobs. The research included a longitudinal sample--from which data were collected at organizational entry--following training, after 1-2 years on the job and after 3-4 years on the job. This book provides a concise and readable description of the entire Project A research program. The editors share the problems, strategies, experiences, findings, lessons learned, and some of the excitement that resulted from conducting the type of project that comes along once in a lifetime for an industrial/organizational psychologist. This book is of interest to industrial/organizational psychologists, including experienced researchers, consultants, graduate students, and anyone interested in personnel selection and classification research.

Over the course of the past few years, teaching, research, and practice has underscored the importance of performance measurement and criterion development as topics of great interest, considerable debate, and some misunderstanding. It has also become clear that the field needs to address a compendium of research, applications, and issues. Performance Measurement: Current Perspectives and Future Challenges brings together internationally recognized leaders in the field and each examines the subject matter in a way that has never been done--focusing on the dynamic nature of work and the tremendous demands being placed on assessment and measurement as core organizational activities. It also uniquely uses their expertise to provide critical pointers to not only the practical implications of work in the field, but also to the new and continuing issues to be addressed and research to be conducted. The book will be useful to both scientists and practitioners.