I__. - International Military Testing Association

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naval officer (e.g.. poise and the officer’s willingness to have the individual serve under his/her command). Each
applicant was assigned an overall rating of very high (1) to very poor (5). For consistency, this scale was rcvcrse
scored.
SCII. This scale consists of 76 item-responses from the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory that predict
officeztcntion for at lcast one year beyond the minimum obligated service (@cumann & Abrahams, 19781).
The authors rcportcd a biscrial correlation of .I9 bc(ween the XII and cxtcndcd scrvicc. Scores can range from
62 to 138.
B(J. The career tenure scale, developed in 1981, is based on 14 biodata and personality items from
Rimland’s (1957) Background Questionnaire. Neumann (personal communication, 1989) rcportcd a biscrial
correlation of .I2 between the BQ and NROTC attrition. Scores can range from 93 to 107.
ES. Engineering and science interests are idcntificd through 132 item-responses from the Strong-Campbell
IntcreyInvcnlory (Neumann & Abrahams, 1978b). The authors reported biserial correlations of 56 and 58
between ES and choice of final major for two cross-validation samples. Scores on this scale can range from 31
t o 163,
Criteria
Four pcrformancc crilcria were used individually or in composites. When the four single-crilcrion regression
equations wcrc combined into a composile, the following weights were assigned to the criteria: 40% for GPA,
30% for APT, 20% for NSG, and 10% for TECH. Scores on GPA, APT, and NSG were standardized (using
x-scores) within each host or cross-enrollment school. For individuals who attrited prior to the end of the first
academic year, scores were cumulated to the time the individual left the NROTC program.
First-Year GPA. This mcaswe is the grade-point avcragc obtained from all college courses that were lakcn
during the first academic year.
First-Year APT. APT is the first-academic-year, grade-point average in nonacademic military aspects of the
NROTC program. An individual is assigned a grade of 0 to 4.00 by NROTC instructors on each of
approximately 20 pcrformancc aspects and personal traits (e.g., goal setting and military bearing). APT is
primarily used to dctcrminc how well an individual is adapting to the Navy and NROTC.
First-Year NSG. This measure is the grade-point avcragc for naval science courses taken during the first
academic year. These courses are Navy-relevant academic classes that include subjects such as navigation and
seamanship. Students must take eight such courses; most students take one course each semester.
Final TECH. majors wcrc categorized as either non-technical (1) or technical (2) using categories that wcrc
obtained from the Chief of Naval Education and Training (CNET). Individuals with valid scores for TECH
represented a subset of the larger sample. TECH was considcrcd valid if the candidate had cntcred collcgc in
(a) 1983, 1984, or 1985 or (b) 1986 and had complctcd at ieast one scmcstcr/quarter of hi&r junior year.
TECH was included as an additional criterion in an attempt to maximize the number of scholarships awxdcd IO
applicants who would eventually choose a technical college major.
Procedure
Development and cross-validation samples. The 5,957 people entering NROTC between 1983 and 1986 wc.rc
randomly assigned to cithcr a devclopmcnl or cross-validation sample @ = 3,652 and B = 2,305, respectively).
A third sample, 652 individuals who cntercd NROTC during 1987, was used as a second cross-validation sample
10 cnsurc that wcighti rcmaincd stable for the most rcccnt year for which crilcrion data wcrc avnilablc.
Dcvcloping and cross-validating optimally weighted composites. Validity coefficients corrected for rang
restriction wcrc used in multiple regression analysts to dcvclop optimally wcightcd selection composites for
picdicting each of the four individual criteria. Although this procedure results in four sepamtc composite scores,
applicants must ultimately be rank-ordcrcd on a single metric in order to make sclcction decisions. To obtain
such an overall composite, the single-criterion composites were combined into the QI-89 in order to predict the’
four single crilcria simultaneously. Weights were dcrivcd for these overall composites by combining predictor
weights obtained for the single-criterion rcgrcssion equations.
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