z42\doc\web\2000\07\afqt.txt Date forwarded: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 19:13:58 -0400 (EDT) Send reply to: "Patricia Hausman" From: "Patricia Hausman" To: Subject: Re: Be All That You Can Be Date sent: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 19:07:19 -0400 Forwarded by: upstream-list@cycad.com > Pat, I remember reading several years ago that the > Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) had been found > nondiscrimatory by the Supreme Court and yes there > were parts, I don't remember which, that correlated > highly with IQ. The AFQT used to be an actual test (a very long time ago. Today, it is a composite score calculated via a formula that uses four of the 10 subtests on the current test for enlistment, the Armed Forces Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) . The g factor is so heavily represented in the AFQT that I consider it essentially an IQ test; the military calls it a meaure of "trainability." The one drawback to the ASVAB is that it is truncated at the upper end. It isn't good for making distinctions among those at the right end of the tail. The military has done many studies of the fairness of the ASVAB to females and minorities. There is no evidence of bias against them; the test actually tends to overpredict their performance in training. I can't imagine that this went to the Supreme Court. I thought the military enjoyed the right to set its own qualifications independent of the employment laws that govern the rest of society. If anyone knows the name of the case, I'd be grateful for a citation. Thanks, Patti --- This is a message from the Upstream mailing list. Visit the Upstream Website at http://cycad.com/cgi-bin/Upstream/ Visit the Upstream Mailing List archives at http://cycad.com/upstream-list-archive To subscribe to this list send email to the address upstream-list-request@cycad.com with just the subject subscribe To unsubscribe from this list send email to the address upstream-list-request@cycad.com with just the subject unsubscribe