I__. - International Military Testing Association

Post Selection Board Analysis
Post-selection board review of the 1986/87 NROTC scholarship
year pointed to the need to build more structure into the
evaluation system in order to (1) provide more consistency in
the evaluation of records and (2) permit the selection of those
who were truly best qualified in both an academic and potential
officer sense.
Assessment of the criteria used by board members to assign
points to an application suggested that there was wide variance
among board members in the value placed on the level of a
student's academic or extracurricular performance and the type
of student extracurricular activity. For example, some board
members felt that athletic participation was essential for
success as an officer; others did not. Applications were
scored accordingly, with the resulting selection scores
dependent upon the values of the particular selection board
members assigned to review an application. This created the
potential for wide variance in the scoring of similar
applications by different selection boards.
Analysis of the scores assigned by the weekly boards revealed
that the average score awarded was over 80 points (out of
100). This meant that weekly selection board members had very
little ability to "reach down" to select an applicant who came
to the selection process with a less competitive Quality Index,
regardless of the merit of the applicant.
Solution
To address the problems of evaluation consistency and the
extremely high average selection board score, a more formal
method of application evaluation was instituted. Applicant
evaluation categories were developed from observation of board
member discussion during the initial weekly selection board
sessions. Those areas that selection board members appeared to
value consistently as most important when discriminating
between competitive scholarship applicants were incorporated
into a revised applicant evaluation system. Each evaluation
category was also assigned a scoring level maximum . Optical
Mark Reading (OMR) equipment was purchased and the NROTC
Scholarship application was redesigned to be read by an optical
scanner. Additionally, a formal selection board training
program was developed to ensure that each weekly selection
board began the selection board process with the same
application evaluation guidance.
This revised selection system was finalized during the summer
of 1987 and used by the first weekly selection board of the
1987/1988 NROTC program year. Each year, data based on
selection board actions are reviewed and the system modified as
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