“It will be interesting when they get around to doing this for airline pilots! 30 plus years ago I an encounter with an EEOC officer who had flown into town for a meeting with my county agency on our testing procedures for paramedics. He was insistent that lots of people can do the work but “just don’t do well on tests.” I asked him if he would get back on the plane and return to Washington if he knew the pilots didn’t do well with exams and had failed their written tests for several ratings? He didn’t see the humor, but I think he might have gotten the point.”
It is true as a principle any test that is not the actual job itself does add and miss qualifications which are not relevant to the job at hand.
It is regrettable that our testing technology is so crude. In the future it may be possible to construct a test that more closely simulates the actual requirements of a job.
Such a test would invariably increase the number of qualified workers for a job and thus benefit any employer that choose an a more accruate test enabling them utilize this population.
An improved test would also save the employeer money lost due to ultimatly unqualfied employees passing the test for lack of something not adaquitly tested for.
The point is testing error cause a lot of problems. One of the most common forms of testing error is related to the reading and writing function of the test. Some people are poor at theses tasks which may not have anything significant to do with the job at hand.
But isn't reading and writing a function that is relevant in virtually every job? Especially police work?
There are exceptions, I'm sure. But any job that requires a civil service exam would seem to require a working knowledge of reading and writing.
You make very valid points.
The true test of a person’s ability to perform a task or job is to actually do it, and even if not well, at least without disastrous consequences.
Testing is an inexact science at best, at least in many respects. We were working to come up with a test that would help us decide which applicants would make good paramedics. This was 30 years ago and the notion of advanced pre-hospital care was in its infancy.