A Rating Scale for Marine Non-Commissioned Officers at the First Three Pay Grades

Abstract

During the latter part of 1946, instructions were issued by the Commandant, U.S. Marine Corps, concerning the use and marking of the fitness report for non-commissioned officers of the U.S. Marine Corps. Some loss of effectiveness had been experienced, due in part perhaps to the inexperience of the rating officers, but at any rate the ratings assigned appeared not to differentiate sufficiently between the various levels of qualification and performance. There was little spread in the distribution of markings. Instructions were issued which will tend toward a wider spread, but nevertheless, the opportunity appeared for personal research in the field of rating scales, and it is hoped that this unofficial and independent work may contribute something to those more intimately connected with the problem. The purpose of this project, then, is to construct a rating scale and, in the process, to make some useful contribution to the problem of rating non-commissioned officers of the first three pay grades in the U.S. Marine Corps.