Learning About Quality How the Quality of Military Personnel is Revealed Over Time

摘要

This report explores the quality of U.S. enlisted personnel in the first term of service. The measure of quality in the report extends the customary definition of quality-i.e., high school diploma graduate and scoring in the upper half on the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT)-to include performance as indicated by speed of promotion during the first term. We find that a large amount of information about a service member's quality is revealed during the first term. Our research suggests that future assessment of personnel quality and of policies that affect quality should employ measures of quality that reflect both entry-level measures and performance in service. According to the measure of quality developed in the report, the services retain higher- quality members although they tend to lose members with higher AFQT scores. The report was prepared under the sponsorship of the Office of Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. The research was conducted within the Forces and Resources Policy Center of RAND's National Defense Research Institute, a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, the unified commands, and the defense agencies.