ABSTRACT
The Job Performance Measurement/Enlistment Standards (JPM) project was initiated as a result of a 1980 United States (US) congressional mandate that directed the military services to demonstrate empirically that performance on the enlistment selection and classification test is performance on the job. Previously, evidence of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) predictive validity had been based on its relations with measures of performance in training. Questions about the necessity of the services high applicant quality standards mounted following the advent of the all volunteer force in 1973, subsequent misnorming of the ASVAB that resulted in the enlistment of large numbers of theoretically unqualified recruits, and the high costs associated with recruiting and retaining individuals with high ASVAB scores. Congress wanted more convincing evidence that these high enlistment standards were indeed warranted. Therefore, the goals of the JPM project were to measure job performance, estimate the criterion-related validity of the ASVAB and reevaluate enlistment standards.
