FORT MEADE, Md. -- After more than half a century of Soldiers using the current Academic Evaluation Report, Army officials plan to release a new version in the form of a fillable PDF that can be uploaded immediately to the Soldier's record.
The revamped Department of the Army Form 1059 will also include more ways to accurately track a Soldier's academic performance in military and civilian schools.
The form and its corresponding Army regulation are part of ongoing efforts for the Army to better capture and manage talent. Both are expected to be released soon, pending approval by the secretary of the Army.
"It's putting increased academic accountability into the system," said George Piccirilli, division chief for the Evaluations, Selections and Promotions Division, Army Human Resources Command.
ARMY EVALUATION ENTRY SYSTEM
In addition to the new fillable form, instructors at Army schoolhouses will be trained this summer on a new electronic system currently under development, which will be used to upload the new academic reports and make them more easily accessible.
The new system, which is expected to be fully operational this summer, will be available on the Army Evaluation Entry System, or EES, which currently tracks NCO and officer evaluation reports.
"It's all electronic, so there's really no paper going back and forth," said David Griffee, chief of evaluation systems within the division. "That will give the schools the ability to do things faster and more efficient."
The new report has three separate forms to evaluate performance in service schools, civilian institutions and one solely used by the Army War College.
One significant change in the service schools form is that it now recognizes "superior academic achievement" for Soldiers who place within the top 21 to 40 percent of a class. The top 20 percent fall under the commandant's list.
"The new form has more rigor, more structure," Piccirilli said. "We're trying to get a little bit more information so the Army can truly identify those top performers, those critical thinkers it is looking for in the future."
Under the database, academic reports will be placed faster into a Soldier's record. That could mean a Soldier being deemed as "promotable" right after he or she graduates a service course.
And if a Soldier goes before a promotion board, the report can be quickly found online to verify their education.
"There's a lot of leverage in the system," Piccirilli said.
Academic reports stored in the EES database will be transferred to the Army's talent management database once it is developed and goes live.
"We can push that all forward to give them a foundation," Griffee said.
The searchable data found in the academic reports could help put qualified Soldiers in the right job in the right place at the right time.
Soldiers may even see opportunities in different career fields due to their educational background.
"Having those pieces of information may allow you to shape your team with a different mix of personnel rather than just a single basic branch," Griffee said.
That could then lead to a unique setting where there are new ideas and opinions versus a single line of thought.
"Having a healthy debate and different viewpoints generally leads to better decisions," Griffee said.
