The Sisyphus Comments

We Don’t Fail Students Out Of The Academy

Anyone that is involved in the recruiting process for a criminal justice agency knows that it is getting increasingly more challenging to find qualified applicants. Candidates that look good at first blush are often eliminated due to criminal or serious traffic convictions, past employment issues, drug use, financial missteps or any of a variety of other reasons. Suffice it to say, once an agency finds a candidate that can successfully navigate the employment process minefield, the last thing they want to see happen is for the candidate to fail the academy. Unfortunately, if a training academy is being operated in an ethically sound manner, there are going to be unsuccessful students from time to time.

What do I mean when I use the phrase “ethically sound manner?” The administration of a criminal justice training academy in Virginia is governed by three primary sets of standards; the Code of Virginia, Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) regulations and individual academy policies. The Code of Virginia specifies the basic requirements that must be met in order to qualify for employment as a criminal justice officer and it also designates the Criminal Justice Services Board as the entity that is responsible for establishing policies regarding most criminal justice issues. The Department of Criminal Justice Services is charged with the responsibility of carrying out the policies established by the Criminal Justice Services Board. They generally accomplish this duty by establishing regulations.

The two categories of regulations that have the greatest impact on entry level training are the academy certification standards and the entry level training criteria. The academy certification standards specify the administrative requirements that must be met by both independent and regional academies in order to qualify to conduct criminal justice training in Virginia. Many of these standards do not specify that an academy perform a specific task in a certain manner. Instead, the standards require each academy to establish a policy that governs the administrative procedures in a given area of operations. For instance, DCJS regulations require each student to demonstrate proficiency in all topics that are mandated by the entry level training criteria. Each certified academy is required to establish a testing and retesting policy to insure that each student demonstrates proficiency. This is actually a fairly liberal regulatory method since it essentially permits each academy to establish its own standards, provided they adhere to those standards once they have been established. Academy policies are normally established by the governing body of a regional academy and by the chief, or his designee, in an independent academy. Once these policies are established, selective adherence to the procedures specified in the policy can result in civil liability for the director and the governing body, as well as re-certification problems for the academy.

So how does this system function at the academy level. Since it is one of the most critical areas, let’s take a look at the academy testing and re-testing policy. As indicated earlier, each academy is required to establish a testing and retesting policy. With some minor variations, most academies have established policies that afford a student three opportunities to demonstrate proficiency in each area covered by the training criteria. This is a fact that I believe some agency administrators fail to keep in mind when they are notified that a recruit has failed to successfully complete a block of instruction. The Cardinal Criminal Justice Academy policy states:

Students must successfully pass all portions of written examinations and performance tests in order to demonstrate proficiency. Any entry level student who does not pass all portions of a written examination shall be afforded up to two re-tests on the failed portions of the examination. The first re-test on a written examination shall consist of only those questions that the student failed to correctly answer on the initial test. The second re-test shall consist of only those questions that the student failed to correctly answer on the first re-test.

In addition, the policy goes on to say:

Re-tests for written examinations will be administered as indicated on the course schedule. Re-tests for performance tests shall be administered only after the failed student has been provided with remedial instruction by an instructor or staff member.

Now that we have a clear understanding of the key policy requirements, lets look at how the policy is implemented. On the first day of the academy, each student is provided with a complete course schedule that lists the class name, the training criteria numbers that will be instructed in each class and the name of the instructor. Each student is also provided with a complete list of the DCJS training criteria for the entire course. The training criteria are used to develop the lesson plan and PowerPoint presentation for each class. In addition, depending on the nature of the training criteria, either a written or practical testing instrument is developed based on the content of the lesson plan.

This “triangular” relationship between the training criteria, the lesson plan and the testing instrument is the basis for the performance based training model that we use in the academy. The beauty of performance based training is everyone involved in the process including training managers, instructors and students have a clear understanding of what material will be taught and tested in a given block of instruction. This makes it very easy for a students to direct their study toward the critical training areas. At Cardinal, we also make sure that the answers to all of the test questions are included in the PowerPoint presentation that is used to instruct the class. In addition, all of the PowerPoint presentations are available to the student at any time via our on-line training system.

During any given week of an academy session, students attend class from Monday through Thursday and receive instruction on a variety of topics. Every Monday morning, they are administered a written examination that test their knowledge of the material from the areas of instruction that they received during the preceding week. The examinations are graded and, later that day, each student receives a grade sheet that lists his raw score, percentage score and the criteria numbers for any questions that were incorrectly answered. During the last hour of the day, the training coordinator in charge of the class conducts a test review. Although, the actual test questions are not revealed, the topics covered by questions are reviewed to insure that the students have sufficient knowledge to answer the question correctly on the re-test. In addition, the students are reminded regularly that individualized remedial instruction is available from the training staff upon request.

The first re-test is administered on Wednesday just prior to the lunch break. Each student is administered an examination containing only those questions that the student answered incorrectly on the first attempt at the examination. Again, the examinations are graded and each student receives a grade sheet listing his cumulative raw score, percentage score and the criteria numbers for any questions that were incorrectly answered a second time. Again, the training coordinator in charge of the class conducts a test review for any student that did not correctly answer all of the questions on the examination.

This process is repeated on Thursday when the students take their second and final re-test. Any student that fails to answer a test question after the second re-test fails the block of instruction to which the question applies. Keep in mind that, by this point, in addition to being provided with a list of the training criteria, the student has:

1. received the initial classroom instruction;
2. taken the initial examination;
3. received mandatory remedial instruction;
4. taken a second examination consisting of only the question he missed on the first examination;
5. received mandatory remedial instruction;
6. took a third examination consisting of only the questions he missed on the two previous attempts at the examination.

The process is essentially the same for training criteria that require practical examinations, such as defensive tactics, vehicle operations and firearms. For instance, in firearms, each course of fire is considered a practical examination and the student is afforded three attempts to shoot a qualifying score. After each failed attempt at a course of fire, the student receives individual remedial training before he is permitted to shoot the course of fire for record a second or subsequent time. In fact, the only difference between the written and practical testing procedures is, if the student fails any part of a multiple step practical, he must take the entire practical examination over, not just the failed section.

There is one final issue that needs to be clarified. Regardless of which academy your agency attends, try to remember that the academy staff and the instructors do not fail students out of the academy. They simply administer and grade the examinations. As anyone can see, this process is designed to give the students every opportunity to succeed. However, sometimes, and fortunately it doesn’t happen frequently, one needs to step back and reexamine whether a given individual should be carrying a badge and a gun. In their book, “Topgrading: How to Hire, Coach and Keep A Players”, Brad and Geoff Smart estimate that the cost of mis-hiring is 15 times the base salary – do the math. Once you accept the fact that not everyone is cut out for this job, the choice may become obvious, even if it is unpleasant.

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