Research on the Cadet Background and Experience Form to Support Army ROTC Personnel Assessment: 2020-2021

This report covers research conducted in 2020-2021 by the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences that extends an ongoing program of research initiated in 2007. The initial goal of this research program was to develop a new non-cognitive measure, the Cadet Background and Experience Form (CBEF), to help inform the award of Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) four-year scholarships. The U.S. Army Cadet Command has used the CBEF operationally in the award of four-year ROTC scholarships for high school students since 2012. This report focuses on the analysis of CBEF data collected from four-year scholarship applicants during the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 academic years. Evidence from these cohorts suggests that the CBEF is predictive of key outcomes, including Army Physical Fitness Test scores and Grade Point Average. Evidence that the CBEF predicts disenrollment may be attenuated in the current sample by the impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Results are discussed in context of the current sample and previous research efforts.