An evaluation of a suggested method for measuring the effectiveness of the utilization of technically trained personnel

Abstract

A test based on the Operations Analysis Curriculum at the United States Naval Postgraduate School was administered to 104 Naval Officers. All examinees were graduates or students of the Operations Analysis Curriculum and/or officers holding Operations Analysts billets in the Navy. The sub-sample, 34 examinees, consisting of officers holding Operations Analysts billets and/or Operations Analysis graduates was not sufficient to make adequate statistical determination of the measure of effectiveness proposed in a suggested methodology. The data gathered did crudely support hypothesized learning and forgetting curves and suggested that the effectiveness of Operations Analysis graduates assigned directly to Operations Analysts billets immediately after graduation is much enhanced compared to graduates who are returned first to fleet operational billets. The effectiveness of Operations Analysis trained officers in Operational Analyst billets was shown to be quantitatively and subjectively significantly superior to those with no formal Operations Analysis training. These results indicate that Naval assignment policies should be reviewed in hopes of assigning more Operations Analysis trained officers (consistent with other requirements) to these billets. Further investigation of the results of the test vehicle and other statistics common to Operations Analysis graduates yielded a feasible procedure with which to augment the screening of prospective Operations Analysis students. Final Quality Point Rating, an acceptable measure of performance, had a .614 correlation with four readily available statistics. This evaluation suggests that further study in this area has great promise in yielding useful measures of effectiveness for all personnel filling billets requiring postgraduate education, provided a more effective method is employed to insure completion of the required test instrument(s).