Along with educational, medical, and moral screens, the U.S. Army uses a composite score from the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB), the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT), to select new Soldiers. Although the AFQT is useful for selecting new Soldiers, other personal attributes are important to Soldier performance and retention. Based on the U.S. Army Research Institute's (ARI) investigations, the Army selected one promising measure, the Tailored Adaptive Personality Assessment System (TAPAS), for an initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E), beginning administration to applicants in 2009. Criterion data are being compiled at 6-month intervals from administrative records, from Initial Military Training (IMT), and from schools for eight military occupational specialties (MOS) and will be followed by multiple waves of data collection from Soldiers in units. This is the second of six planned evaluations of the IOT&E. Similar to prior experimental research, our early evaluation suggests that several TAPAS scales significantly predicted a number of criteria of interest, indicating that the measure holds promise for both selection and classification purposes.

"October 2011"--T.p.

Introduction -- Data file development -- Description of the tops IOT&E predictor measures -- Description and psychometric properties of criterion measures -- Evidence for the predictive validity and classification potential of the TAPAS -- Summary and a look ahead -- Appendix A: TAPAS form equivalence analyses -- Appendix B: predictor descriptive statistics -- Appendix C: descriptive statistics for the full schoolhouse sample -- Appendix D: supplemental validity tables.