2003 IMTA Proceedings - International Military Testing Association

Requirement
Inspection of MASS questionnaires completed since 1996 indicates that considerable
numbers of applicants self-disclose information that needs to be reviewed before a
decision can be reached whether to accept them into a high security occupation. In
addition, according to Navy classification personnel who administer MASS, its very
presence makes potential applicants self-select out of these sensitive positions if there is
serious derogatory information in their backgrounds.
However in recent years the program has begun to show its age. MASS 3.0 was
programmed in Turbo Pascal and designed for the IBM 286 computers that were
available at the MEPS in 1996. As newer computers have replaced the 286s some
incompatibility issues have arisen with running MASS that have required temporary
fixes. Difficulties have arisen at some MEPS locations in printing MASS interview
summaries and there has been dissatisfaction with the inability to store and retrieve
results of previous applicant interviews.
In the summer of 2000 a survey was conducted of MASS classifiers at the MEPS to
determine changes that would facilitate its use (Reed, 2000). The primary
recommendation was the need to upgrade the platform to a Windows-based one. Other
desirable features according to those who responded are:
1. Quicker MASS completion time…MASS 3.0 takes at least 20 minutes even for
applicants with little to report. It can take as long as 45 minutes to an hour.
2. Error reducing features such as drop-down lists.
3. Online help such as popup definitions
4. Flexibility in ability to designate Navy ratings when the system matches
applicant responses to Navy Recruiting Manual criteria.
5. Increased detail in the printed interview report such as including the full
question asked along with the responses.
6. Storage and easy retrieval of previous MASS interviews to facilitate reinterviewing
applicants when they return to the MEPS for final processing from the
Delayed Entry Program.
7. Enabling printing of the interview report from a network printer
8. Enabling electronic forwarding of the interview report to the office responsible
for providing guidance whether to continue processing the applicant.
Based on the results of the survey and subsequent discussions, a request was received
from Navy Recruiting Command in February 2001 to develop a Windows-based version
of MASS that would incorporate the field recommendations and add other features that
would enhance the screening process.
Development of MASS 4.0
The MASS 4.0 design addressed all of the field recommendations. The questionnaire
administration was conceptualized as a three-stage procedure. This resulted in a
streamlined questionnaire that contains a set of 20 first level questions that cover the 9
areas of security concern mentioned in the introduction as being included in MASS 3.0,
plus a newer area of “information technology systems.” The number of first level
questions in each of the security areas is shown in column 2 of Table 1.
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45 th Annual Conference of the International Military Testing Association
Pensacola, Florida, 3-6 November 2003