Air Force Community - Air Force Times

Editorial: Rebuild the EPR system

When Air Force officials selected more than 12,000 senior airmen for promotion to staff sergeant, the airmen’s test scores were the deciding factor. Performance report scores hardly counted.

Blame grade inflation.

So many airmen max out or come close to maxing out their points from enlisted performance reports that EPRs are almost irrelevant.

Now, Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force Rodney McKinley is declaring war on grade inflation. He doesn’t have a battle plan yet, but he says he’ll meet with first shirts, command chiefs and even Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz to address the problem.

Logically, only a tiny percentage of airmen deserve a “5” — defined as “truly among the best” — in any EPR category in which they are rated. But unit commanders frequently hand out perfect scores — so-called “firewall 5s.” In this era of job cuts and slow promotions, high scores are a reflexive response to the fear that anything less than a perfect score could ruin an airman’s career.

Talk alone won’t fix this problem. McKinley is resisting reworking the scoring system, but that’s the only way this problem can be solved.

Either the rating scale can be expanded and redefined, or raters can be forced to defend how they rate their airmen.

Whatever the choice, the result is a new opportunity to give everyone a fresh start. By setting a clear definition for the standard, high-performing airman — whether that’s a “4” or something else — and a limit on the number of 5s any command can bestow on those who are “truly among the best,” fairness and logic can be restored to the system.