Technical b r Report - International Military Testing Association

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for the training material development itself. The test development
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effort, then, is a parallel and concurrent but fndependent effort. In
this way the criterion tests measure whether the student’can perform
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criterion job functions upon completion of train’ing, not just whether
or not he learned what was in the course.
“Criterion referenced” tests as we are employing the term means
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more than scores measured against fixed as opposed to relative standards.
By criterion referenced we also mean that skills are measured in the
context of the application situation as completely as possible. By
criterion referenced we mean that the tests are designed so that
performance on them represents a true measure of job performance, rather
than measures of the possession of skills presumed to contribute
positively to job performance. In the ‘area of Infantry and Armor combat
skills, there are no acceptable job performance conditions against
which to verify or validate evaluation’mcasures. In other areas in
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which we have worked ,,electronic and mechanical repair maintenance, vork
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samples could be easily constructed.
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,For the Infantry and Armor soldier
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this was not the case. The job of th combat arms soldier fs not to apply
a specific set of skills on a repetit It is to recall and select
required skills as needed by unique sJtuations and integrate and apply
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them under conditions of stress ranging from mild to drastically severe.
What we were seeking then was to approach and approximate those conditions
in our evaluation of his job profit 1rncy.
In our development of criterion referenced performance tests, several
guiding principles have become common td all of our developmental efforts.
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