A Job Performance Measurement System

As organizations move toward increased performance measurement and accountability, there is an increasing need to measure job performance at the individual worker level. Traditional assessment tools have been criticized as measuring test taking skills more than job performance skills. A number of approaches have been developed to address this weakness by measuring performance in practical problem solving. Unfortunately, these typically suffer a lack of a good underlying model of performance knowledge or utilize one that has an over-reliance on procedural knowledge and de-emphasizes underlying grasp of concepts relevant to job performance. Research Development Corporation proposes to develop automated job performance assessment tools that are based on a validated assessment model we created and is currently being used in a New Jersey school district. Our assessment model utilizes scenario-based testing to measure problem solving performance and question and answer techniquest to probe concept mastery and areas requiring remediation. The proposed work will benefit from considerable technical accomplishments on previous projects, thus reducing risk of our proposed effort. In Phase I, we will develop a proof-of-concept assessment tool for a job category of the Air Force's choosing and demonstrate its validity. In Phase II, we will develop knowledge engineering and test authoring tools to allow the Air Force to develop and validate job performance tests for job categories of its choosing.