Michael Schiefer

The Department of the Air Force (DAF) promulgates directives, memorandums of instructions, and other guidance embracing the importance of diversity. Although demographic data have been masked for most boards making decisions about career development and promotions, the 2021 Central Professional Military Education Program Boards provided an opportunity to test the effects of unmasking the data.

Because test scores that are part of its enlisted promotion system are not standardized, the U. S. Air Force emphasizes longevity and test-taking ability differently and randomly across and within specialties. Random emphasis implies that the Air Force cannot be sure it promotes individuals with the highest potential. The authors discuss a range of predictable outcomes the Air Force could achieve by adopting various standardization strategies. This book examines the practice of not standardizing the test scores that are part of the U. S. Air Force enlisted promotion system and discusses possible standardization strategies.

A fundamental goal of the Air Force personnel system is to ensure that the manpower inventory, by Air Force specialty code and grade, matches requirements. However, there are structural obstacles that impede achieving this goal. To remove one of those obstacles, the authors propose a methodology that would marginally modify grade authorizations within skill levels to make it possible to better achieve manpower targets.