Predictive Validity of the Air Force Officer Qualifying Test (AFOQT) for Non-Rated Officer Specialties

Abstract

A meta-analysis was performed to examine the generalizability of the predictive validity of the Air Force Officer Qualifying Test (AFOQT) operational composites against technical training performance for 14 non-rated Air Force Specialties. AFOQT data were from Form Q and were used to compute composites based on Form S specifications. All five operational composites (Verbal, Quantitative, Academic Aptitude, Pilot, and Navigator/Technical) were included in the analyses. Analyses began by examining the observed correlation between the AFOQT composites and technical training final grade for each officer training course. The meta-analysis of the observed correlations was corrected only for sampling error. The observed correlations then were corrected for range restriction using the multivariate method and the meta-analysis was repeated. The range-restriction corrected correlations were then corrected for unreliability of the test scores and training criterion and the meta-analysis was repeated. This third set of correlations provides a theoretical estimate of the predictiveness of the composites when perfectly reliable measures are available. Ninety percent of the observed correlations between the AFOQT composites and average officer technical training grades were statistically significant at or beyond the .05 level, thus supporting its value in selecting non-rated officers. Results of the meta-analyses of the observed correlations indicated that the predictive validity for 4 of the 5 AFOQT composites (Verbal, Academic Aptitude, Pilot, and Navigator/Technical) was not the same across the non-rated officer training specialties. Validity generalization was observed only for the Quantitative composite. After correction for range restriction, 4 of the 5 composites demonstrated validity generalization across the training specialties. This means that the true validity of the AFOQT composites (except Verbal) was consistent across the officer training specialties.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2009
Accession Number
ADA520877

Entities

People

  • Thomas R. Carretta

Organizations

  • Air Force Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Air Force Personnel
  • Air Force Research Laboratories
  • Aircraft Maintenance
  • Aircrafts
  • Composite Materials
  • Flight Crews
  • Government Procurement
  • Information Systems
  • Maintenance
  • Navigators
  • Reserve Officer Training Corps
  • Sampling
  • Specifications
  • Supervisory Control
  • Training
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Psychometric Testing or Psychological Assessment.
  • Regression Analysis.