Radar Training Facility initial validation.

PDFTech ReportFAA-AM-83-9DOT/FAA/AM-83/9Radar air traffic controlAir traffic controllersTraining programsAptitudeSelection and appointmentValidationData collectionUnited StatesCivil Aerospace Medical InstituteBoone, James O.Civil Aeromedical InstituteUnited States. Office of Aviation MedicineNTL-AVIATION-Air Traffic ControlUS Transportation CollectionThe Radar Training Facility (RTF), part of the Federal Aviation Administration Academy located at the Oklahoma City Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center, is designed to identify, as early as possible, air traffic control specialists who do not demonstrate sufficient potential to perform at radar tasks at the journeyman level. An extensive initial validation effort involving design evaluation, implementation evaluation, and formative evaluation was performed to determine if the system was adequately designed from an educational point of view, if the measures employed were reliable, if the program had a proper concurrent relationship with nonradar Academy measures, and if the difficulty level was appropriate.While the program was not pass/fail during the study, a score of less than 70 was used to calculate experimental pass/fail rates. Data from the initial validation effort indicated that the system was educationally sufficient, reliabilities were low to moderate, the RTF program had a proper concurrent relationship with nonradar measures, and the difficulty level was approximately correct. Information from data collected appeared to be asymptoting, and it was recommended that the program could begin pass/fail.The data for this study were collected prior to the air traffic control specialist's strike, and following the strike the Academy radar phase was sequenced out of the basic training curriculum to a later point (after the developmental ATCS had successfully checked out at the field facility in a nonradar position)