Abstract
Although the high school diploma is almost universally required for criminal justice employment, it has become widely discredited as no longer being a meaningful indicator of reading, writing, or computational abilities. This study examines one state's response to this discrepancy through minimum competency testing for police and correctional recruits undergoing entry-level training. Multiple regression techniques are used to determine: (1) to what extent demographic variables are predictive of recruit's basic skills scores; and (2) to what extent basic skills scores are predictive of performance on the state certification examination required for criminal justice employment. Findings indicate that demographic variables are relatively weak predictors of recruits' abilities in reading, writing, and mathematics. Moreover, contrary to expectations, considerably more of the variance in certification exam performance can be attributed to the test-taker's discipline (law enforcement or corrections) than to their basic skills scores. Possible reasons for this unexpected outcome are explored.
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