House members demand FAA shed light on air-traffic controller hiring, Chicago Tribune

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May 27, 2014|By Jon Hilkevitch | Tribune reporter
Twenty-nine members of the U.S. House sent a letter to the head of the Federal Aviation Administration over the holiday weekend complaining about a “lack of transparency’’ in the agency’s new off-the-street hiring policy for air-traffic controllers, and the lawmakers sought assurances that flight safety is not being impaired.

The House members also asked FAA Administrator Michael Huerta to provide a “clear description’’ of the new hiring process; the method used to score a new online biographical assessment that determined whether controller applicants moved on to the next level of testing; the assessment criteria that were used to evaluate an applicant’s aptitude to work as a controller; and the score needed to pass the biographical assessment, as well as releasing to each applicant their actual score.

The letter was dated Friday and a copy was obtained by the Tribune on Tuesday — the same day that the newspaper reported on the new FAA application process that recruits controller candidates exclusively from the general public.

The change effectively ended an almost 25-year partnership between the FAA and 36 colleges that produce graduates who have passed an FAA-approved air-traffic curriculum. The new hiring protocol also eliminated the preferred status for military veterans.

FAA officials said Tuesday afternoon that the agency will review the letter and respond to members of Congress directly.

The congressional letter stated that the FAA’s new hiring process is “intended to be a corrective measure to address alleged barriers to entry that exist for certain applicants.” The Tribune reported Tuesday that a study commissioned by the FAA last year concluded that college is a barrier to African-Americans being hired by the FAA.

“Not only did the FAA change its hiring process, but it did so with little or no advance notice or explanation to those planning to pursue an air-traffic control career with the agency upon completion of their studies or military careers,’’ the letter reads.

Members of the Illinois delegation who signed the letter were U.S. Reps. Randy Hultgren and Daniel Lipinski.

Graduates of collegiate air-traffic programs “expressed frustrations that they were neither told what score was considered ‘passing,’ nor provided with the actual ‘score’ when they were informed by the FAA whether or not they had been selected for further assessment,’’ according to the letter.

“It is apparent to us that there is a lack of transparency in the FAA’s interim revised hiring policy,’’ the letter reads.

The House members also said in the letter that “we want to ensure that in implementing this new hiring policy the FAA ensured the safety role played by air-traffic controllers would not be negatively impacted in the present and future.”

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014-05-27/news/chi-29-us-house-members-demand-faa-shed-light-on-airtraffic-controller-hiring-20140527_1_hiring-policy-controller-air-traffic

Casey, Toomey, Rothfus Urge FAA to Give Fair Consideration to Community College of Beaver County Air Traffic Control Candidates Following Policy Change, Senate

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New FAA Policy Changes How Candidates Are Considered for Air Traffic Control Positions / Change Could Impact Highly Skilled Beaver County Students Who Participate in Specialized Program / Program At Community College of Beaver County Produces Highly Skilled Air Traffic Controllers that Contribute to Safety

Washington, DC- Today, U.S. Senators Bob Casey (D-PA) and Pat Toomey (R-PA) and Congressman Keith Rothfus (R-PA) urged the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to ensure that students in the Community College of Beaver County Air Traffic Control program receive fair consider as the FAA implements a new hiring policy. The policy changes could impact how candidates from the program are considered against other applicants who did not attend the Air Traffic Control program in Beaver County or at another community college in the nation. The Beaver County program has a track record of developing highly skilled air traffic controllers that contribute to airline safety.

“The Community College of Beaver County’s Air Traffic Control program has produced highly skilled workers and it’s important that the FAA continue to give these students fair consideration during the hiring process,” Senator Casey said. “Developing high quality air traffic controllers will increase airline safety. I’m urging the FAA to carefully implement this new policy so that graduates of this specialized training program can continue to compete for positions”

“The Community College of Beaver County has excelled in producing top notch air traffic controllers,” said Senator Toomey.  “As a pilot, I am keenly aware of the role quality air traffic controllers play in promoting safety in air travel.  With this in mind, I hope the FAA will be mindful of the important role educational institutions such as the Community College of Beaver County play in increasing air safety and allows qualified candidates to maintain their eligibility for open air traffic controller positions.”

The full text of the letter is below:

Dear Administrator Huerta,

We are writing regarding the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) new policy for evaluating Air Traffic Control (ATC) candidates announced in December 2013.  Thank you in advance for your consideration of our views.

It is our understanding that the policy change alters the manner in which the FAA considers a candidate’s past participation in an Air Traffic-Collegiate Training Initiative (AT-CTI) program.  We are advised that under the previous policy, AT-CTI students were considered separately from other applicants due, in part, to the specialized training students enrolled in AT-CTI programs receive.  As the FAA moves forward with implementation of this policy change, we believe it is critical that the benefits associated with AT-CTI training be fully taken into account.

As you know, the AT-CTI program arose from a partnership between the FAA and colleges, universities, and trade schools and is designed to help prepare graduating students for ATC careers. Aspiring ATC specialists from around the country have enrolled in this program intending to develop the requisite skills and qualifications necessary for obtaining a position upon graduation. These students come from a variety of backgrounds and study at 36 diverse institutions nationwide and have made a commitment to ATC careers by dedicating time and resources to take part in AT-CTI.

As you evaluate the newly-implemented policy, we ask that you take into account the benefits of AT-CTI training and the work that is being done at places like the Community College of Beaver County, which is home to Pennsylvania’s only AT-CTI program.  The Community College of Beaver County has developed a reputation for excellence and has a proven track record of developing highly skilled air traffic controllers. Given the historical partnership between the AT-CTI program and the FAA, and its importance to many Pennsylvanians, we respectfully request that you consider the intense and successful training programs that are going on in places like Beaver County as you implement this new policy.

We appreciate your time and attention to this matter, and we hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

Robert P. Casey, Jr.
United States Senator

Pat Toomey
United States Senator

Keith Rothfus
Member of Congress

FAA Introduces New Hiring Requirements for Air Traffic Controllers, Fox

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POSTED 12:36 AM, MAY 10, 2014, BY , UPDATED AT 09:49PM, MAY 10, 2014

Jason Bigler has spent the past two years at Sacramento City College’s aeronautics department, preparing to become an air traffic controller.

Time he and his classmates may have wasted now that the Federal Aviation Administration has changed its hiring process.

“It appears that military experience, CTI program aviation experience in general, played a part,” Bigler said.

In fact, Professor Scott Miller’s entire class at McClellan Airfield may have been preparing for the wrong type of test. It used to be that people like Bigler would have to finish his schooling, and take the AT-SAT, the test to screen air traffic controllers.

But now the FAA says to apply for the job, there’s no experience necessary.

“The students that had completed the program and graduated, they were told that those scores would be disregarded and they would have to apply off the street like everyone else,” Miller said.

Starting this year, the FAA only requires students to pass a biographical questionnaire, which Bigler said has little to do with aviation.

“There were questions in there about your time in high school, what kind of sports you played,” Bigler said.

While the FAA isn’t explaining the change, Miller and other critics believe it has to do with a recent FAA study citing lack of diversity.

“The two year schools, like Sacramento City College, which is very proud of its diversity, was not considered as part of its study,” Miller said.

And few of Miller’s qualified students are passing that questionnaire. In fact out of all of Miller’s 38 students, the only one to pass that questionnaire was Bigler.

“Not in the slightest, I have no idea (what I said differently than the other students),” Bigler said.

Meanwhile the FAA released this statement:

“In 2013, the FAA reviewed the end-to-end process of hiring and assigning air traffic control specialists. As a result, in order to recruit a better qualified candidate and reduce costs associated with testing and training, the FAA chose to make several improvements to the way it selects, trains, and assigns air traffic controllers.  Improvements were made to enhance decision making and increase objectivity in the assessment of candidates.

“The selection process for new air traffic controllers was very competitive.

“In the course of two weeks, we received over 28,000 applications for 1,700 positions. We expect to hire additional controllers next year and have encouraged those not selected to reapply then,” said Ian Gregor, Public Affairs Manager for the FAA Pacific Division.”

FAA Introduces New Hiring Requirements for Air Traffic Controllers

Mikulski, Cardin Call on FAA to Honor Commitment to Baltimore Air Traffic Control Students, Congress

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PoliticalNews.me – Apr 19,2014 – Mikulski, Cardin Call on FAA to Honor Commitment to Baltimore Air Traffic Control Students

Recent changes to the FAA’s hiring requirements could disqualify highly-educated candidates that have heavily invested in careers with the FAA

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Barbara A. Mikulski and Ben Cardin (both D-Md.) announced that they have called on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to honor its commitment to active students and recent graduates of Air Traffic Collegiate Training Initiative (CTI) preparing to be part of FAA’s Air Traffic Controller workforce. Recent changes made under the FAA’s A Plan For The Future could disqualify highly-trained recent graduates that have invested their time and money for future careers as Air Traffic Controllers with the FAA.

Maryland’s Community College of Baltimore (CCBC) is home to one of thirty-six schools across the county that offers the CTI program, graduating more than 120 students a year. More than 42 percent of these graduates are female or minority students.

“Students and recent graduates of the CCBC CTI program have expressed to us their concern that the new hiring process outlined in A Plan for the Future may prevent them from securing employment as an air traffic controller after they have invested thousands of dollars in tuition and countless hours into school and training,” the Senators wrote. “Their expectation upon entering the CTI program was that their hard work would result in being hired as an air traffic controller. We do not want these hard-working and qualified graduates to be bypassed and not given the due consideration they expected upon entering the CTI program.”

In 2013, the FAA began a complete overhaul to its hiring process under the A Plan For The Future program in an effort to help diversify its current Air Traffic Controller Workforce. Under the new guidelines, the FAA will no longer favor graduates from the CTI program, but will instead heavily rely on a “Biographical Questionnaire” in its hiring process. These changes have raised concerns among current students and recent graduates of CTI programs who will no longer be given credit for having previously received intensive training to become Air Traffic Controllers.

The letter to FAA Administrator Michael Huerta follows:

April 14, 2014

Mr. Michael Huerta
Administrator
Federal Aviation Administration
800 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20591

Dear Administrator Huerta:

We are writing to express our support for the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) efforts to diversify the Air Traffic Controller workforce so that it better reflects America. At the same time, we want to seek clarification on the impact these changes may have on current students and recent graduates of Air Traffic Collegiate Training Initiative (CTI) programs.

Maryland’s Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) is home to one of the 36 CTI schools across the country. The CCBC CTI program graduates an average of 120 students per year and provides the FAA with a diverse pool of air traffic controller candidates, with the yearly average student population represented by 42 percent female or minority students.

Students and recent graduates

of the CCBC CTI program have expressed to us their concern that the new hiring process outlined in A Plan for the Future may prevent them from securing employment as an air traffic controller after they have invested thousands of dollars in tuition and countless hours into school and training. Their expectation upon entering the CTI program was that their hard work would result in being hired as an air traffic controller. We do not want these hard-working and qualified graduates to be bypassed and not given the due consideration they expected upon entering the CTI program.

We heartily support your efforts to attract qualified minorities into the air traffic controller workforce and request that you help the student who are currently in the pipeline understand what changes have been made, how these changes will benefit the air traffic controller workforce, and how the changes will impact their applications. We also request that you give the current students and recent graduates, who entered the program before this hiring change took effect, greater consideration throughout the air traffic controller application process.

Sincerely,

Barbara Mikulski
United States Senator

Ben Cardin
United States Senator

http://politicalnews.me/?id=28053&pg=2&keys=FAA-STUDENT-AIR-TRAFFIC

Air traffic students at Mt. SAC in Walnut tell congresswoman FAA diversity rules are unfair, SGV Tribune

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U.S. Congresswoman Grace Napolitano listens to Mt. SAC Collegiate Training Initiative students on Thursday explain how they followed a two-year course of study for air traffic controller and passed an FAA test only to be rejected after being informed by email that they failed a biographical questionnaire. New FAA rules are stopping many highly qualified aeronautical graduates from the Walnut campus from getting jobs as air traffic controllers. Leo Jarzomb — Staff Photographer

By Steve Scauzillo, San Gabriel Valley Tribune

POSTED: |

WALNUT >> A dozen students whose applications for air traffic controller jobs were rejected by the Federal Aviation Administration because they failed a newly-instituted psychological screening test received assurances from a congresswoman that she’d investigate the matter.

Rep. Grace Napolitano, D-El Monte, visited Mt. San Antonio College Thursday and promised the aeronautical students she would get their voices heard in Washington, and if necessary, hand deliver their applications to FAA Administrator Michael P. Huerta.

Napolitano said the new “biographical questionnaire” instituted for the first time in February when the FAA set out to hire 1,300 flight controllers is denying qualified applicants with degrees in aviation science and in some cases, pilot licenses, a chance at a job.

About 92 percent of the 28,000 applicants failed the new screening tool, causing schools from California to Washington to complain that the cream of the crop are being left behind.

“Sometimes bureaucracies get in the way. It is consequences that they don’t realize,” Napolitano said during an exclusive interview Thursday at the college.

Napolitano dodged the question other Air Traffic Collegiate Training Initiative schools raised, namely that the FAA and President Barack Obama’s Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx are trying to increase diversity among air traffic controllers by adjusting the hiring rules.

She said that depends on what one means by diversity, adding that federal agencies are under Congressional order to fill Affirmative Action quotas of minorities, namely African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanics and Asians.

“We are trying to find out the minority participation,” she said.

Napolitano, on a fact-finding mission, intimated that the FAA may not be accomplishing that goal with the new 62-question test but in fact, doing the opposite.

After speaking to the aide to ranking Democrat Rep. Rick Larsen on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure’s Subcommittee on Aviation, she said the committee may take up a bill or simply ask the FAA to do away with the new questionnaire.

Instructors and students at the college, one of only two with AT-CTI accreditation in the state, said for the first time since the program began in 1946, students are being rejected. About 20 percent of the air traffic controllers in the nation graduated from Mt. SAC, said Professor Robert Rogus, co-chairman of the program.

One student, Ehaab Ibrahim, 30, drove from Beaumont for a year to attend the program. After finishing 12 classes in two semesters, he earned a 4.0 GPA and a grade of 100 percent on the FAA’s aptitude test for air traffic controller. But because he didn’t pass the biographical questionnaire, his application was rejected.

“I feel like my opportunity was taken from me. I did everything they asked. I couldn’t have gotten better than a 4.0 or 100 percent,” Ibrahim said Thursday.

Because he turns 31 at the end of the year, he will no longer be eligible for the job as air traffic controller. The FAA has only allows applicants between the ages of 18 and 30.

Napolitano said she wanted to see if Ibrahim’s application could be forwarded to the FAA before the next hiring period in January 2015, when it will be too late.

Other students voiced similar concerns during the meeting with the congresswoman. Some said they have friends who came from Hawaii to attend the Mt. SAC program. One student moved from San Jose to attend and get training at the college in order to be a more qualified applicant.

Napolitano urged students from the program to write a joint letter to the House committee and to FAA Chairman Huerta, which she said she will also sign.

“But I want to make sure they hear it from you,” she told the students.

New FAA rules stopping Mt. SAC students from getting jobs as air traffic controllers, SGV Tribune

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By Steve Scauzillo, San Gabriel Valley Tribune

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Veteran Chris Schneider worked as an air traffic controller in the Air Force. He went back to school and earned a degree in aviation science from Mt. San Antonio College, carrying a 3.48 GPA. He passed the government’s aptitude exam.

But even though he can guide an F-16 onto a dusty landing strip, he is not a good candidate for air traffic controller and his application was rejected, according to the Federal Aviation Administration and his teachers.

He will have to re-apply in 2015, they said.

Schneider is one of thousands of college students in the U.S. spending hours staring into airplane-control simulators who are being turned away from jobs as air traffic controllers because they can’t pass a biographical questionnaire.

The new 62-question test was added as a screening device in January “in order to recruit a better qualified candidate,” said FAA spokesman Ian Gregor in a written statement. But aeronautics professors and one U.S. senator say the new FAA screening method is unfair to students studying under the old rules. It could lead to dangerous conditions for the nation’s air travelers if less-qualified men and women receive preference over college-trained applicants, they say.

“Under this new system, it is not very far off when we will have controllers who know less and less about the system,” said Steve Shackelford, a professor at Mt. SAC, the largest community college in the state, and a former air traffic controller.

Shackelford said there is no longer a requirement for a high school degree.

The FAA wants to hire at least 1,000 air traffic controllers a year, up to 10,000 new positions, to meet demand left by an aging workforce. Air traffic controllers must leave their jobs when they reach age 56.

At first, this was good news for the 35 schools in the country with Air Traffic Collegiate Training Initiative (AT-CTI) programs, who’ve invested millions in computer simulators and instructors from the field.

That changed for Mt. SAC, one of only two AT-CTI programs in the state, the other being Sacramento City College, on Dec. 30, 2013 when the FAA said it would add the new test. About 92 percent of AT-CTI students have failed the biographical questionnaire (BQ), even those who passed the FAA’s aptitude exam, said Professor Robert Rogus, co-chairman of the Aeronautics Department.

Rogus says the FAA means well but is going about it backward. The BQ screens out qualified applicants. He said they should first assess aptitude, then personal characteristics.

“It’s all good that the FAA wants to hire 10,000 people. What is not good is the BQ is too restrictive. The applicant never gets to the next step,” Rogus said.

Students are not told why they are not ready for the job, he said. “They don’t know why. There is no feedback. There is no rationale,” he added.

During the open hire period in February and March, 28,000 applicants took the test and only 2,200 passed, said U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington during a recent Senate hearing.

“Nobody understands what this biographical questionnaire is evaluating. The rates of failure … is very concerning,” she told U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx who appeared at the hearing.

Murray said the new rules are preventing veterans from getting jobs as air traffic controllers.

Some say the new rules are to bring more minorities into the job.

“What we have found is the group of folks who apply to the FAA for air traffic controller positions tend to be rather limited. In this instance, the FAA took an opportunity to do a broader opening, to try to get a larger universe of applicants into the program,” Foxx said during the hearing.

Local Rep. Grace Napolitano, D-El Monte, will visit the Mt. SAC flight controller program and meet with teachers and students Thursday morning, said her spokesman Jerry O’Donnell. She did not return calls Tuesday.

The test questions often provide ambiguous choices, Rogus said, with no objective answers. For example, Question No. 14 asks: “I would rather be known as a person who is very a. determined, b. respectful.” Another question in the section asks: “I am more: a. eager, b. considerate.”

Gregor wrote that the new test measures the job applicants’ characteristics that have been shown to predict success as an air traffic controller. He also said the FAA continues to consider education and hands-on experience.

Rogus and others say the system was not broken, so why fix it.

The Mt. SAC program has been in existence since 1946 and attracts students from Palmdale to the San Fernando Valley to Orange County and out of state. Twenty percent of all the air traffic controllers on the job today are graduates of the program, Rogus said.

He is scratching his head as to why his top students suddenly are not deemed eligible for a job with the FAA, especially when the agency needs to fill positions.

“It is baffling to us,” he said.

— Staff Writer Richard Irwin @richirwinSGVN contributed to this story.

http://www.sgvtribune.com/general-news/20140415/new-faa-rules-stopping-mt-sac-students-from-getting-jobs-as-air-traffic-controllers

FAA Closes a Hiring Runway for Air-Traffic Controllers, WSJ

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Colleges, Students Balk as Agency Ends an Inside Track

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SUSAN CAREY

For years, aspiring air-traffic controllers in the U.S. have enrolled in schools selected by the Federal Aviation Administration to offer special courses that could smooth the way for a job at the agency.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304655304579551972980383170