DA Form 1059 Explained: Variants, Signatures, and Appeals

DA Form 1059, the Army’s Service School Academic Evaluation Report, is the official record of how a soldier performed during military schooling, and it becomes a permanent part of the personnel file that promotion boards, school selection panels, and assignment managers read. AR 623-3 governs how it is prepared, signed, and filed. Three variants exist for different training environments, and the form carries real consequences: a weak rating can shadow a career for years, while a strong one signals potential.

The Three Variants

The 1059 series has three versions, all feeding the same personnel file and carrying the same weight with boards.

DA Form 1059 is the standard version for resident military courses such as the Basic Leader Course, Captains Career Course, and Command and General Staff College.
DA Form 1059-1 covers soldiers attending civilian institutions or the Training With Industry program. It does not use a box-check rating system; it collects input from the civilian institution and the Army program manager overseeing the training.
DA Form 1059-2 covers additional military training settings and, like the standard 1059, uses a rating system for overall academic achievement.

All three are available from the Army Publishing Directorate. Schools use the March 2019 version, which is the authorized format for digital submission.¹

What the Form Rates

Part I captures administrative data: name, rank, DOD ID, course title, and the start and end dates of training. It also records whether the soldier met Army fitness and body composition standards during the course.

The heart of the form is the overall academic achievement rating. On DA Form 1059 and 1059-2, the rater selects one of four levels:

Exceeded Course Standards — performed above what the course required.
Achieved Course Standards — met all requirements.
Marginally Achieved Course Standards — completed the course but showed notable weaknesses.
Failed to Achieve Course Standards — did not meet the course requirements.

One detail catches soldiers off guard. If the academic rater marks “No” for meeting height and weight or fitness standards, the highest possible overall rating drops to “Achieved Course Standards,” regardless of academic performance. A perfect test score won’t overcome a fitness failure on this form.²

The narrative comments matter more than most soldiers realize. Boards read them closely, and specific examples of leadership or technical skill carry far more weight than vague praise.

When a Report Is Referred

Certain negative entries make a 1059 a “referred” report. The reviewing official must show it to the soldier and give a chance to respond in writing before the report goes to headquarters. Referral is triggered by any of these:

A “Failed to Achieve Course Standards” rating on DA Form 1059 or a “Non-Graduate” rating on DA Form 1059-2.
A “Did Not Graduate” reason for submission.
A “Did Not Meet Standard” rating in any evaluated area.
A “No” response to whether the soldier supports the Army’s equal opportunity or sexual harassment prevention programs.
Failure to meet fitness test or height and weight standards.
Any comment negative enough to damage the soldier’s career.

A failure rating also triggers a supplementary review, where a senior official examines the report for accuracy and fairness before filing.²

If you receive a referred report, your written statement is attached to the evaluation, and boards will see it. Be clear about what the statement is not: submitting one does not count as filing an appeal and does not count as requesting a commander’s inquiry. Those are separate processes with their own deadlines.²

Who Signs, and What Your Signature Means

Three people sign a 1059 before it leaves the schoolhouse: the academic rater, the reviewing official, and the rated soldier. The reviewing official sits above the rater in the school’s chain of supervision but cannot be higher than the school commandant.²

Your signature confirms only that you have reviewed the administrative data. It does not mean you agree with the performance assessment. Refusing to sign does not stop the report. The rater annotates the refusal in the signature block, and the report moves forward and gets filed anyway.

How the Report Reaches Your File

Schools submit completed evaluations through the Evaluation Entry System at evaluations.hrc.army.mil. Once HQDA accepts the upload, the report goes directly into your iPERMS file.¹

The system only accepts digital signatures. DA Form 1059-1 is the exception. Because of how civilian institutions handle paperwork, the 1059-1 still requires ink signatures and must be mailed to Human Resources Command.¹

Common upload errors include using an outdated form version, entering the wrong DOD ID, submitting before the class end date, or missing a digital signature from someone in the rating chain. The system shows an error when a submission fails, but only once. If your report doesn’t appear in iPERMS within a reasonable period after course completion, contact the school’s administrative office. Transmission problems are usually fixable, but they won’t fix themselves.

If Something Is Wrong

You have three separate paths to challenge or correct a 1059, and choosing the right one depends on what is wrong and how long ago the report was filed.

Commander’s or Commandant’s Inquiry

The fastest option is a commander’s or commandant’s inquiry. Its purpose is command-level review to identify errors or injustices while the evaluation is still fresh. A rater, a fellow soldier, or anyone with authorized access to the report can raise concerns. An inquiry can uncover problems like an unqualified rating official, inaccurate statements, or a lack of objectivity, and its findings can support a later formal appeal. The inquiry itself is not an appeal and does not substitute for one.

Timing is tight. The request must be made within 60 days of the rated soldier’s signature date (or the authenticating official’s signature for DA Form 1059), and the commander’s findings must be forwarded to HQDA within 120 days of that same signature date. Missing these windows does not close off a formal appeal, but it does close this avenue.²

Administrative Corrections

Objective errors in factual data on a filed report, such as wrong dates of attendance, a misspelled name, or an incorrect DOD ID, are fixed through an administrative correction request to the Department of the Army Special Review Boards. These corrections handle mistakes, not disagreements about the rater’s assessment. You need documentation that proves the record is wrong: a graduation certificate, travel orders, or similar official paperwork. Administrative corrections have no filing deadline.³

Substantive Appeals

Challenging the ratings themselves or the narrative comments requires a substantive appeal through the Evaluation Report Redress Program under Chapter 4 of AR 623-3. This is a harder fight. Every filed evaluation carries a presumption of regularity, and the burden falls on you to show a material error, inaccuracy, or injustice.⁴

Personal circumstances alone, such as family obligations or conflicts with civilian work during a course, generally are not enough. Boards look for procedural failures, regulatory violations, or demonstrably inaccurate statements. Strong appeals usually include witness statements, documentary evidence contradicting the rater’s claims, or proof that the rating chain failed to follow required procedures.

You have three years from the report’s completion date to file a substantive appeal. The Special Review Board can waive this deadline under exceptional circumstances, but you must explain in your cover memorandum why you waited. If your appeal is denied, the next step is the Army Board for Correction of Military Records, which operates under 10 U.S.C. § 1552 and can direct changes to any military record when it finds an error or injustice.³

Read It Before You Sign

Soldiers sometimes treat the 1059 as a formality. It isn’t. Promotion boards see every academic evaluation alongside your OERs or NCOERs. A “Marginally Achieved” rating raises questions that follow you for years, and fixing an evaluation two years after it lands in your file is far harder than catching the problem at the schoolhouse. Verify the administrative data before you sign. If the narrative doesn’t reflect what happened in the course, use the proper channels while the deadlines are still open.

1
U.S. Army Human Resources Command. Academic Evaluation Report (AER) Single File Upload User’s Guide
2
Department of the Army. Army Regulation 623-3 – Evaluation Reporting System
3
U.S. Army Human Resources Command. Guide for Preparation of Officer and NCO Evaluation Report Appeals
4
Army Review Boards Agency. Army Board for Correction of Military Records Record of Proceedings