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Public Sector Practice Exchange

by Ilene Gast, Associate Editor

During the past five years, most of the projects described in this column have been conducted by Federal agencies. Last year, I attempted, with some success, to expand coverage to innovative programs at the state and local level. With your help, I would like to place even more emphasis on state and local activities. From my trips to the annual IPMAAC conferences, I know that there are many interesting projects in progress. If you know of one, please let me hear from you. I can be reached by phone at (202) 305-0590, by fax at (202) 514-4200, or by electronic mail at IFGAST@AOL.COM.

Psychologist from U.S. and Great Britain Exchange Ideas on Personnel Assessment: In February, Nicholas Vasilopoulos, a Personnel Research Psychologist with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), was invited by the British Government to spend a month with their Recruitment and Assessment Services (RAS). RAS is a government agency responsible for developing selection measures for the British Government. Nick's visit was part of a longstanding relationship between the British Government and Federal Personnel Psychologists. In the past, RAS has invited Magda Colberg, Mary Anne Nester, and David Pollack to share ideas. This May, psychologists from RAS plan to visit INS to exchange ideas on law enforcement issues. In the future, such international dialog will be expanded to other countries involved in personnel research.

This article will describe the details of one selection procedure developed by psychologists at RAS. In subsequent issues, Nick will describe other projects that may be relevant to selection in the United States.

Fast Stream Applicant Assessment
by Nicholas Vasilopoulos

The Fast Stream Applicant Assessment is designed to select individuals for the British Civil Service who are able to work effectively in an intellectually demanding environment. Fast Streamers are placed into career paths that involve both job diversity (rotated through a number of the government agencies), and quick advancement. Fast Stream appointments typically involve working along side high ranking officials in the British government.

Approximately 8,000 candidates apply for the Fast Stream each year for 250 openings. To lessen administrative demands, screens have been introduced into the system to reduce the number of candidates at each stage. The first screen is a biodata inventory that is mailed along with an application form to individuals interested in the Fast Stream. The biodata score is used to screen out approximately 20% of the candidates.

The second screen used in the Fast Stream Applicant Assessment is a four-hour cognitive ability battery referred to as the "Qualifying Test" (QT). The battery includes a test of verbal organization, logical reasoning, data interpretation, and data sufficiency. Approximately 50% of the candidates fail to reach the cut score on the Qualifying Test. Those passing both the biodata and the cognitive battery are then rank ordered based on the combined biodata/cognitive score (with equal weight given to each test). The top 600 candidates are invited to attend the Civil Service Selection Board (CSSB).

The CSSB is a two day assessment consisting of two group exercises, three interviews, and an in-basket exercise. The group exercises include a leaderless group discussion and a series of panel discussions. The panel discussions require each candidate to chair the group during a discussion of a particular issue. The semi-structured interviews are designed to assess a number of competencies including motivation, drive, determination, management potential, and intellectual ability. Finally, in the in-basket exercise candidates are given 40 minutes to review and organize materials provided and prepare a letter outlining their suggestions to resolving relevant issues. Out of the 600 candidates who attend CSSB, 250 are typically offered positions in the Fast Stream.

For more information call Nicholas Vasilopoulos at (202) 305-0596.

OPM Offers Tools to Enchance Organizational Performance
by Thomas Kiefer

The Office of Personnel Management's Personnel Resources and Development Center has developed an integrated process agencies can use to:

OPM's modular approach enables agencies to address the full spectrum of organizational performance issues, or to select those areas that are most critical to them. This includes:

The OPM system is based on a solid research base that provides for an integrated assessment of all important individual and organizational variables that are related to organizational performance. The OPM system also emphasizes the need for practical application to meet the unique needs of particular agencies. The various components of the system can be customized for agencies. Automated systems, such as OPM's Human Resource Manager, are available for agencies to use in the collection and analysis of data, as well as the implementation of results.

To help agencies learn from each other, OPM is developing an organizational performance network for agencies to share their experiences in this area. OPM will also maintain a database agencies can use to "benchmark" their own experiences with other organizations.

OPM's organizational performance services are available to Federal, State, and local agencies.

For more information, call Thomas Kiefer, (202) 606-2019, or Marilyn Bott, (202) 606-1509.

INS-CAT: The Immigration and Naturalization Service's Computerized Adaptive Testing System
by Randy Park

The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), is developing a computerized adaptive testing (CAT) system. The INS-CAT will administer job-relevant reasoning questions, as well as language and suitability tests where appropriate, to applicants for positions in eight of the agency's largest occupations. It is revolutionizing INS's recruitment and selection processes for these occupations by dramatically reducing testing time and facilitating the option for immediate on-site scoring.

Adaptive testing is able to achieve reductions in testing time by tailoring tests to the level of each test taker. To begin the adaptive test, the computer administers a question of medium difficulty and fairly high precision. The computer records whether or not the applicant answers the question correctly and computes a preliminary score and measure of certainty about that score. The computer then administers a question that is about as difficult as the applicant's estimated score, records the response, and makes another score estimate that is higher if the person has answered that question correctly and lower if not. Each time the applicant responds to a question, the computer is able to estimate the applicant's score more precisely.

The first phase of the project is a pilot test and an evaluation of the CAT system for selecting border Patrol Agents. Beginning in April, the computerized battery will be administered on a trial basis in Chicago and Philadelphia. The test battery will include the CAT version of the reasoning test and non-adaptive computer-based tests (CBTs) of the Spanish Language Proficiency Test, The Artificial Language Test (ALT), and the Applicant Assessment Inventory.

In a future update of the CAT, the ALT, which is currently a two-hour paper-and-pencil test, will be administered in the computer adaptive format. The ALT is a written test of language learning ability, which is designed to simulate the grammatical and syntactical structures of neo-Latin languages such as Spanish and French. For Fiscal Year 1997, the adaptive administration of a one-hour CAT ALT will be a reality.

The ultimate aim of the INS-CAT project is to reduce what is now a five-hour paper-and-pencil test battery into a three-hour computerized test battery.

For more information contact Randy Park or Patricia Harris at (202) 305-0600.

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