Review of Related Literature
Historical & General Background
Getting In
For almost half a century, the U.S. military has been a pioneer in the use of aptitude tests to select individuals with sufficient skills and abilities to absorb military training, adjust to military life, and become successful military members (“History”, n.d.). The Army’s screening of recruits began in World War I, with the Army Alpha and Army Beta Tests, which were replaced with the Army General Classification Test during World War II. When Congress passed the Selective Service Act in 1948, the Department of Defense (DoD) developed the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) in response to Congress’ mandate that a uniform screening test to be used by all services be developed (‘Armed Services,’ 2014). In the 1960’s, DoD decided to develop a standardized military selection and classification test and administer it throughout U.S. high schools. In 1968, the DoD began administering the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery free of charge to interested 10th, 11th and 12th grade students and to students in postsecondary schools as a means to help provide enlistment eligibility information for military service (Armstrong, Chalupsky, McLaughlin, & Dalldorf, 1988), but it wasn’t used for military recruiting until a few years later. As of 1976, three years after the draft ended, the ASVAB was adopted as the single selection and classification battery for enlistment testing, and is administered to all potential recruits, with the results used to determine enlistment eligibility, job placement and the awarding of enlistment bonuses (‘Armed Services,’ 2014; Center, 2009). Table 1 lists and describes the ten different areas scored by the ASVAB.
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... the Army and the taxpayer suffer when the course prerequisites (the Army’s electronics composite score) don’t accurately reflect a necessary level of knowledge and/or proficiency necessary to be successful in the course and subsequently in the career field as a whole.
Summary of Literature Reviewed
The overall result is that in order for recruits to be successful in training and throughout their career, they must meet the prerequisites that have been proven to predict success necessary for that field. Those prerequisites, however, must be valid, which requires them to be aligned with the training objectives. If the current minimum composite electronics line score is an inadequate measure of the baseline recruits need to have prior to being assigned an electrical-heavy MOS, the Army needs to conduct a needs analysis to determine what that score should be.
Thomas N. Barnes Center for Enlisted Education (U.S.) United States. Department of the Air Force, (2012a) Change management (LM06), Maxwell-Gunter Annex, AL: Department of the Air Force
After more than ten years of persistent counterinsurgency (COIN) conflict and multiple simultaneous responses to several natural disasters, the United States Army is at a crossroads regarding professional education for its officers and enlisted force. Considering overseas contingency operations in Iraq are due to conclude in December 2011 and by 2014 for Afghanistan, it is plausible that strategic planners are considering the future make-up of what will constitute the Total Army Force to include new educational criteria for what could be a smaller force than was needed for present day operations. While this may be “peace dividend” speculation, there is precedence for the Army to reevaluate its force structure and personal qualification requirements after every major conflict over the last century. . Even though defense budget reductions should redoubt army equipment priorities, training deferrals because of persistent contingency operations have inhibited enlisted professional development despite that counterinsurgency operations require refocused soldiers training to improve their sense of situational understanding and application of observable operational ethics through conceptual enlisted leadership evaluation efforts.
This paper will not bore with the definition of a profession. The United States Army is about more than words, it is about action. The action of over 238 years of tradition and service. The Army is a profession. A profession requires its members to adhere to prolonged training and learn specialized skills. A member of a profession must wholly commit himself and his skills to a calling which is entrusted by the public. A profession provides its members with intrinsic value which motivates beyond financial gain. The Army is a higher calling which demands all of these qualities and more.
The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, also known as the GI Bill of Rights (GI Bill), was signed into law on June 22, 1944, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt (United States Department of Veterans Affairs, 2012). It was a pivotal point in history, which has impacted the United States socially, economically and politically. Today, educational benefits are primary tools used to recruit service members. In 2007-2008, about 4 percent of all undergraduates and about 4 percent of all graduate students were veterans or military service members (Radford, 2011). Furthermore, the recent expansions in benefits increase the use of education benefits by veterans will grow almost 5 percent (Simon, Negrusa, & Warner, 2009). To improve the success in higher education, veterans must ensure they keep updated on current educational assistance programs as well as other educational services provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and their institutions.
A young girl is excited about graduating high school and attending her first year at college. She tries hard at school and receives above-average grades. She is an active student involved in student council, band, the drama team, and peer tutoring, but her ACT scores are extremely low, disqualifying her from many universities. The young girl represents many students who are not successful at taking standardized tests because they have not developed the advanced skills required to take a test like the ACT or SAT. An academically motivated and responsible student should not be prevented from attending college because a "standard" test is not his or her standard. The current methods of testing for the ACT or SAT should be abolished and replaced with modified and less "standard" questions to better measure a student's learning potential. In addition to different testing techniques, a student's learning potential should be a measure of a culmination of activities and methods; testing should be less important than other methods in determining a student's learning potential, if not the least important. Standardized testing must evolve to encompass a more diverse student population, and it should not be the primary factor in measuring learning potential.
The two most common aptitude tests administered for high school students are the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and American College Testing (ACT), devised to assess a student’s potential for success and readiness in college. However, experience is still regarded as important; school-related learning, particularly in language and mathematics, is a prerequisite for success on the tests. Because aptitude tests are regarded as reliable, they eliminate teacher bias and differences in teachers’ grading practices, thus, adding valuable information in predicting future college success. There is no widely accepted definition of “aptitude” and “ability,” and the terms are often used
Manpower strengths now became a major issue, which for the first time caused drafts to play an important role for men. The military designated programs to force a more b...
There is an every growing need for college graduates that need government benefits. There are a surplus of able body men and woman looking for a career or a chance to better their life’s using the benefits provide by the Mandatory Military Services Act as a catalyst to improve the standard of living for each citizen. By having experience that will transience to the job market, with the job market being flooded with highly train workers with military background the overall productivity will greatly improve. (Ruschmann
In these days and times of continuous military and terrorist conflict, military soldiers should be required to participate in pre and post deployment health assessments. That brings me to the question, “Why is pre and post deployment health assessments needed?” The revelant of pre and post deployment health assessments will test our soldiers to see if they have any mental issues. Military life, especially the stress of deployments or mobilizations, can present challenges to service members and their families that are both unique and difficult. Some are manageable, some are not. Many times, we can successfully deal with them on our own. In some instances, matters get worse and one problem can trigger other more serious issues. At such times, it is wise to check things out and see what is really happening. That introduces the purpose of these totally anonymous and voluntary mental health testing self-assessments. The testing questions are designed so you can review your situation with regard to some of the more common mental health issues including, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, alcohol problems and more. The screening will not provide a diagnosis – for that you need to see a professional. But, it will tell you whether or not you have symptoms that are consistent with a condition or concern that would benefit from further evaluation or treatment. It will also give you guidance as to where you might seek assistance. We are affected by this because we could lose our love ones if we don’t know what kind of mental issues they have.
Webster’s dictionary defines the word profession as a type of job that requires special education, training, or skill. Many Soldiers would not consider the Army as a profession but a way of life. Some think the word profession belongs to everyday jobs like a plumber, mechanic, or doctor. Dr. Don M. Snider stated “the Army is a profession because of the expert work it produces, because the people in the Army develop themselves to be professionals, and because the Army certifies them as such” (Snider, D. M. 2008). In October 2010, the Secretary of the Army directed the Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) to lead an Army wide assessment of the state of the Army Profession. We have been at war as a Country for over a decade and the Army wanted to know how to shape the future of the Army as a profession and the effects the past decade had on our profession.
Today, in the United States, standardized tests are administered every year by states to their Kindergarten-12th grade public school students. Different states place different weight on their standardized testing results where some states differ their funding based on results and annual improvement, whereas other states allow schools to simply gauge where their students are scoring relative to other schools in the state. These tests, however, are only standardized within one state. One of the few tests standardized throughout the entire country is the SAT, the Scholastic Aptitude Test, administered by College Board and required by, “More than 800 of the nation’s colleges and universities,” (Comras, 1984). This test will be the standardized test focused on in this paper. While standardized testing is that, standardized, and enables the comparison of one student to another, the meaning of the score does not equate to a test of intelligence. Therefore, while standardized testing should be applied in the education system, it needs to be more indicative of the material learned in school and should hold less weight than it currently does in the college admissions process.
Readiness is of the utmost importance with training being the most significant aspect that contributes to Readiness. Each Soldier needs an individual training plan. The plan should take the Soldier from enlistment to discharge or retirement. It is each Soldiers responsibility to be proficient in their field craft. This includes being fit mentally and physically, and trained to win in a complex world. It is the responsibility of the NCO to train these Soldiers. Unit training plans will address the readiness and resilience of individual Soldiers to ensure their fitness to accomplish their mission. Units must conduct realistic training at the individual, squad, platoon and company levels focused on Mission Essential Tasks (METs) for their
On the same note, every day there is a civilian signing a piece of paper, joining the force, preparing to receive world class training and doctrinal lessons on how to be a good leader, as well as, a good subordinate. While on active duty, service members are subjected to continuous training opportunities and experiences. The Army promotion system is a rigorous platform system that requires certain benchmarks in their military education and time in service. These benchmarks ensure that the best available candidate moves forward and takes the sought after position, demanding the highest level of mental fortitude and discipline. These traits, along with others, are some of the ways the Army prepares vets for ensuing education. The Army has established training requirements that ensure soldiers are active in their decision making and critical thinking skills and are taking classes’ equivalent to that of a civilian. The longer a soldier is enlisted, the more training and formal education they will receive to assist in their departure from the military. The Structured Self Development (SSD) created by the Army has allowed many soldiers who were uneasy with or procrastinating continuing their education a chance to ease into it or see what it would be like in a distant learning situation. This training is necessary for promotion to certain echelons and is intended to emulate college level classes, but of the military genre. Currently, many schools accept military training as transferable credits through the Army American Council on Education Registry Transcript System (AARTS). The AARTS program allows a suggested transfer credit registry for military training, occupational skills, leadership courses, and other military specific training that directly correlates with civilian education (Wilson 57). With
The most difficult barrier to conducting initial individual training is the varying backgrounds of all of the soldiers. In ...
World War I convinced the U.S. Army to use intelligence testing to match recruits with the right military job due to the need to categorize rapidly the millions of men drafted into the army. Hence, two distinct intelligence tests, as developed by Yerkes with other psychologists, were given to the draftees; Army Alpha tests for those able to read English and Army Beta tests for those illiterate in English. Subsequently, the numerical scores of the Alpha and Beta tests were translated to letters grades ranging from A to E. The A group included the high officer type, while the B group included men of less superior