REDUCING RESPONSE BURDEN IN THE
AMERICAN COMMUNITY SURVEY

Proceedings of a Workshop

Thomas J. Plewes, Rapporteur

Committee on National Statistics

Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, DC
www.nap.edu

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS500 Fifth Street, NWWashington, DC 20001

This activity was supported by the U.S. Census Bureau through Contract No. YA1323-15-CN-0025. Support of the work of the Committee on National Statistics is provided by a consortium of federal agencies through a grant from the National Science Foundation (No. SES-1024012). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization or agency that provided support for the project.

International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-44943-4
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-44943-X
Digital Object Identifier: 10.17226/23639

Additional copies of this report are available from the National Academies Press, 500 Fifth Street, NW, Keck 360, Washington, DC 20001; (800) 624-6242 or (202) 334-3313; http://www.nap.edu.

Copyright 2016 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America.

Suggested citation: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2016). Reducing Response Burden in the American Community Survey: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23639.

STEERING COMMITTEE FOR WORKSHOP ON RESPONDENT BURDEN IN THE AMERICAN COMMUNITY SURVEY

LINDA GAGE (Cochair), Demographic Research Unit, Department of Finance, State of California (retired)

JOSEPH SALVO (Cochair), Population Division, New York City Department of City Planning

DAVID DOLSON, Social Survey Methods, Statistics Canada

JOHN ELTINGE, Office of Survey Methods Research, Bureau of Labor Statistics

DAVID HUBBLE, Statistical Staff, Westat

JULIA LANE, Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University

NANCY MATHIOWETZ, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (emerita)

BRIAN HARRIS-KOJETIN, Study Director

MICHAEL COHEN, Senior Program Officer

AGNES GASKIN, Administrative Assistant

COMMITTEE ON NATIONAL STATISTICS

LAWRENCE D. BROWN (Chair), Department of Statistics, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

FRANCINE BLAU, Department of Economics, Cornell University

MARY ELLEN BOCK, Department of Statistics (emerita), Purdue University

MICHAEL CHERNEW, Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School

JANET CURRIE, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University

DONALD DILLMAN, Social and Economic Sciences Research Center, Washington State University

CONSTANTINE GATSONIS, Department of Biostatistics and Center for Statistical Sciences, Brown University

JAMES S. HOUSE, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan

THOMAS MESENBOURG, U.S. Census Bureau (retired)

SUSAN MURPHY, Department of Statistics and Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan

SARAH NUSSER, Office of the Vice President for Research, Iowa State University

COLM O’MUIRCHEARTAIGH, Harris School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago

RUTH PETERSON, Criminal Justice Research Center, Ohio State University

ROBERTO RIGOBON, Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

EDWARD SHORTLIFFE, Department of Biomedical Informatics, Columbia University and Arizona State University

CONSTANCE F. CITRO, Director

BRIAN HARRIS-KOJETIN, Deputy Director

Acknowledgments

This workshop was the culmination of an intense period of scoping, planning, and development on the part of the staff of the U.S. Census Bureau and the Committee on National Statistics of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, as well as the volunteer members of the workshop steering committee to consider the challenges and opportunities for reducing respondent burden of the American Community Survey (ACS), which is conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. The 2-day workshop, held in March 2016, included a wide range of experts and stakeholders. It also marked the beginning of a challenging series of expert meetings conducted during the spring of 2016 on various topics pertaining to understanding and controlling for the burden imposed on respondents by the ACS.

The knowledgeable contributions of Census Bureau staff, especially Mark Asiala, Judy Belton, Donna Daily, Todd Hughes, Amy O’Hara, Elizabeth Poehler, David Raglin, Jennifer Reichert, Deborah Stempowski, Anthony Tersine, and Victoria Velkoff throughout this process were very much appreciated.

The workshop was developed with the input and guidance of our exceptionally dedicated and productive fellow members of the steering committee. Selected for their individual expertise on the ACS and the subject matter under consideration, the steering committee met via several telephone conference calls over a 3-month period to design the workshop. The members of the steering committee are commended for their contributions to the enterprise.

These proceedings are the main product of the workshop. This report was prepared by an independent rapporteur whose charter was to distill the gist of the presentations and the essence of the discussions. The steering committee’s role was limited to planning and convening the workshop. The views contained in the report are those of individual workshop participants and do not necessarily represent the views of all workshop participants, the planning committee, or the National Academies.

This workshop summary has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the Report Review Committee of the National Academies. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the process.

We thank the following individuals for their review of this workshop summary: Linda Gage, consultant, Sacramento, CA; Linda A. Jacobsen, U.S. Programs, Population Reference Bureau; Sarah M. Nusser, Center for Survey Statistics and Methodology and Office of the Vice President for Research, Iowa State University; Susan Schechter, senior fellow, NORC at the University of Chicago; and Daniel H. Weinberg, principal, DHW Consulting.

Although the reviewers listed above provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they did not see the final draft of the workshop summary before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Sarah M. Nusser, Center for Survey Statistics and Methodology and Office of the Vice President for Research, Iowa State University. Appointed by the National Academies, she was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the rapporteur and the institution.

Contents

1 Introduction: Understanding Response Burden

2 Approaches to Reducing Response Burden

3 Improving Response by Building Respondent Support

4 Using Administrative Records to Reduce Response Burden

5 Using Improved Sampling and Other Methods to Reduce Response Burden

6 Tailoring Collection of Information from Group Quarters

7 Future Directions

References

Appendixes

A Workshop Agenda

B Biographical Sketches of Steering Committee Members and Presenters

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