Practice Exchange

Ilene Gast, Associate Editor

This column highlights innovative assessment programs of interest to assessment professionals. If you are conducting a project that would interest the ACN readers, or if you know someone who is, please let me hear from you. I can be reached by phone at (202) 305-0590, fax at (202) 305-3664, or electronic mail at ilene.f.gast@justice.usdoj.gov.

The Border Patrol's Competency-based Structured Oral Interview

by Lisa Malik
U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service

The Border Patrol Assessment Battery

The structured oral interview is one of four assessments that comprise the selection battery for applicants who are seeking employment as a Border Patrol Agent at the entry level. The overall selection battery includes a reasoning test, a language assessment, an applicant assessment that identifies applicants who are likely to engage in counterproductive behavior on the job, and a structured oral interview. Like the other assessments in the selection battery, the structured oral interview is compency-based. Each assessment focuses on a specific subset of competencies that are critical to effective performance in Border Patrol jobs.

The structured interview provides an additional, more direct assessment of the likelihood that applicants will engage in counterproductive behavior. It also provides a good medium for assessing interpersonal skills and other characteristics that are not easily assessed in a written test, and it gives Border Patrol staff the opportunity for "face-to-face" interaction with applicants before a final hiring decision is made.

Applicants are first administered the reasoning test, language test, and the applicant assessment. Those who pass these three assessments participate in the structured oral interview. The interview is conducted by a panel of three Border Patrol Agents. In order to ensure proper administration of the interview, Border Patrol Agents must complete a comprehensive training session certifying them as oral board members. The training session provides an overview of the structured interview process, a set of detailed practice interview exercises and live "mock" interview sessions, and a training video. In addition to the basic interview training protocol, a "train the trainer" approach is employed, in which Border Patrol Agents are also trained and certified to conduct interviewer training in the field. To date, 71 Agents have been certified to conduct the interviewer training and more than 800 Border Patrol Agents have been trained to administer the interview.

The Competencies Assessed by the Structured Oral Interview

During the interview, applicants are presented with a series of hypothetical situational questions or "scenarios" and asked to indicate how they would respond to each situation. The applicants' responses to the situational questions are rated on the following four competencies: (1) judgment and decision-making, (2) emotional maturity, (3) interpersonal skills, and (4) cooperativeness and sensitivity to the needs of others. We found these competencies to be important and necessary for successful performance on the job through a thorough job analysis. A subsequent analysis involving site visits to the field and meetings with panels of senior and supervisory Border Patrol Agent subject matter experts confirmed the importance of these four competencies.

The Rating Process for the Structured Oral Interview

The rating process for the interview requires individual documentation from each interviewer, as well as consensus rating documentation by the panel. Documentation of the applicant's responses to the interview questions is a critical part of the interview process. Documentation supports the numerical ratings assigned to each competency for each applicant and demonstrates the objectivity of the ratings by explaining clearly the responses or behaviors that led to these ratings. A rating of "1" on any of the four competencies indicates unsatisfactory (failing) performance; a rating of "2" indicates satisfactory (passing) performance. If a candidate fails any one of the competencies, then he or she fails the interview. Applicants also are asked a series of questions to determine whether or not they are willing to perform certain essential functions of the Border Patrol Agent job. A negative response to any of these essential functions questions also leads to failure of the interview.

The Validity of the Structured Oral Interview

Content and construct validity of the interview was demonstrated by the fact that the assessment was constructed from critical incidents prepared by Border Patrol Agent incumbents; these critical incidents were documented as being representative of important Border Patrol Agent competencies that are measurable in an interview medium and as replicating important functions of the job. Border Patrol subject matter experts participated in all stages of the development process.

For further information about these instruments, please contact the Research and Development Division, Entry-Level Assessment Section at (202) 305-0600