Since 2005, the Health and Resilience (H&R) Research Division within the Office of People Analytics (OPA) has conducted congressionally mandated gender relations assessments at the U.S. Military Service Academies (Academy), known as the Service Academy Gender Relations (SAGR) Survey project. The cycle of the project alternates between qualitative data collection and a quantitative (survey) assessment. In even years, the assessment is used to monitor the past-year estimated prevalence of unwanted sexual contact (a proxy for sexual assault), sexual harassment and gender discrimination among cadets and midshipmen via scientific survey, and thereby to assess progress in preventing these unwanted behaviors from occurring. In odd-numbered years, these assessments involve qualitative data collection at the Academies to better understand their climates with respect to sexual harassment and sexual assault for cadets and midshipmen.
For the 2023 qualitative iteration of SAGR effort, OPA conducted a process evaluation of the Command Climate Assessment (CCA) cycle at the three Department of Defense (DoD) Academies. The primary objective of this process evaluation was to better understand how CCA is conducted at the Academies, to identify promising practices and areas for improvement, and to develop materials to bolster the Academies’ CCA processes in the future.