I__. - International Military Testing Association

DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A STRUCTURED
INTERVIEW PROGRAM FOR NROTC SELECTION
Walter C. Borman
University of South Florida
and Personnel Decisions Research Institutes, Inc.
and
Cynthia K. Owens-Kurt2
and Teresa L. Russell
Personnel Decisions Research Institutes, Inc.
The Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) is one of the majc-:
sources of Navy and Marine Corps officers. Presently, 40,000 young men 3.!: '
women apply for a 4-year NROTC scholarship each year. Approximately 40% (:f
this total pass an ,initial screen based on college board scores (minim:ca
430 verbal and 520 math on SAT or equivalent ACT scores), proper age
(between 17 and 21 when school,starfs, and no more than 25 at estimated
time of college graduation), and, acceptable progress through high school.
Those passing the screen (called Board Eligibles) are required to complete
an application blank and to interview with a Naval officer, typically at
one of the 43 recruiting.district headquarters. The focus of this paper ir
on this officer interview.
As conducted, previously, an officer interviewed each Board Eligible
applicant, usually for 15-4-O minutes depending upon the personal style (-;f
the interviewer and on the interview load (i.e., the number of NROTC Bo~I:'~;
Eligibles that must be interviewed that day). Interviews were unstructuj-:
in that interviewers were free to ask any questions they believed were
relevant. After completion of the interview, the interviewer completed .?
brie,f rating form.
Experience with the previous NROTC interview showed that ratings wereoften
at or near the top (most effective) end. For example, the mean
rating on the Overall Potential scale for Board Eligibles in the most
recent class for which data were available (class entering NROTC 1985) L:,:!:,
4.68 on the 5-point scale. Further, when interview ratings (on the
Potential scale) were correlated with the NROTC performance criteria, gra.i:
point average (GPA), Naval science grades (NSG), and an aptitude rating
(APT) , results were near zero (Owens-Kurtz, Borman, Gialluca, Abrahams, &
Mattson, 1988). Finally, the effective weights for the interview when USC?
along with SAT scores, high school rank, and SCII/BQ scores in regression
analyses against these criteria were very low for GPA and NSG and only the
third highest contributor to pyedic tion
of APT (Owens-Kurt2 et al., 19ZSj.
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This research was supported by funds from the office of Naval Technolo9:;
Program Element 0602233N. The opinions expressed are those of the authcrc;
and do not necessarily reflect those of the U. S. Mavy.
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