Objective assessment of prior air traffic control-related experience through the use of an occupational knowledge...

The Occupational Knowledge Test (OKT) 101-B was administered to 784 air traffic control trainees who entered the FAA Academy's 16-week training course in 1976. All trainees completed the nonradar laboratory portion of the training and, in addition, completed a preemployment questionnaire. Based on responses to the questionnaire, the trainees were assigned to one of three experience groups, corresponding to groups given credit for experience using Civil Service Commission (CSC) selection procedures. It was found that the OKT was highly correlated with experience (r = 0.64) and, in addition, had a higher correlation with successful completion of the nonradar lab than did experience (r = 0.25 vs. 0.12). It was determined that use of an OKT score of 75 or above to assign extra credit would result in a failure rate of 3.1% for those receiving credit, while use of the current experience scale would result in a failure rate of 7.6% for those receiving extra credit on the CSC selection battery. The results held up for a cross-validation sample of 432 trainees who entered the Academy during 1977. Based on the results, it is recommended that an OKT score of 75 or above be used to assign extra credit for experience in the selection of air traffic controllers.