Proposed New Army Aptitude Area Composites: A Summary of Research Results

The Army currently employs nine Aptitude Area (AA) composites to classify new recruits; they are derived from the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) subtests in a manner that makes them easy to calculate but inefficient for classification. At the end of 2001 the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) will eliminate the two timed subtests in the ASVAB. This will reduce the classification efficiency of the existing Army composites and necessitate redefinition of the existing composites. In their place the Army is considering for adoption new composites that nave been developed by ARI based on a job performance criterion. ARI has developed a set of 17 operational classification-efficient job families and corresponding composites that would be used for administrative, counseling, and school proponent purposes. The new structure strongly resembles the existing structure, in effect being a further shredding of existing families. The new composites/job families are undergoing further testing and evaluation, and will be considered for implementation in the 2004-2005 period. In the meantime ARI has developed an interim set of composites that retain the existing nine operational job families but are also based on defensible job performance data. These will be implemented January 2002 while planning for the new 17 Army Aptitude Area composites goes forward.