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Part 2: Commentary
Pages 13-38

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From page 13...
... Statistical agencies have been establishecl for several reasons: (1) to develop new information for an area of public concern (e.g., the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the National Center for Health Statistics)
From page 14...
... However, to maintain credibility as an objective source of accurate, useful information, statistical agencies must be separate from units that are involved in developing policy and assessing policy alternatives. The work of federal statistical agencies is coordinated through the Interagency Council on Statistical Policy (ICSP)
From page 15...
... Federal statistical agencies serve the key fimctions of providing a broad array of information to the public and policy makers and of ensuring the necessary quality and credibility of the data.
From page 16...
... act~v~ues. Many federal statistical agencies that can trace their roots back to the 19th or early 20th century, such as the National Center for Education Statistics and the National Center for Health Statistics, were organize in their current form following World War II.
From page 17...
... An effective statistical agency, nevertheless, will frequently play a creative, not just reactive, role in the development of data needed for policy analysis. Sometimes federal statistical agencies play additional roles, such as monitor and consultant on statistical matters to other units within the same department (see, e.g., National Research Council, 1985a)
From page 18...
... In order to provide information that is relevant for public policy, statistical agencies need to reach out to users of the data. Federal statistical agencies usually are in touch with the primary users in their own departments.
From page 19...
... Credibility is enhanced when an agency finely informs users of the strengths and weaknesses of the data, makes data available widely, and consults with users about priorities for data collection and analysis. A federal statistical agency must have a relationship of mutual respect and ~st with respond ts who provide data a7~a~ata subjects whose informanor' it obtainers@ The statistics program of the federal government relies in large part on information supplied by individuals and by organizations outside the federal government, such as state and local governments, businesses, and other organizations.
From page 20...
... Respondent trust also depends on providing respondents with realistic promises of confidentiality that the agency can reasonably expect to honor and then scrupulously honoring those promises. PRACTICES FOR A FEDERAL STATISTICAL AGENCY A Clearly Defined and WeN-Accepted Mission A clear understanding of the mission of an agency, the scope of itS statistical programs, and its authority and responsibilities is basic tO planning and evaluating its programs and to maintaining credibility and independence from political control (National Research Council, 19861.
From page 21...
... Examples of agencies with such an arrangement are the Bureau of the Census, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the Energy Information Administration, and the National Center for Education Statistics. A further safeguard is provided when such a heat!
From page 22...
... In addition, the courts sometimes become involved in interpreting laws and regulations that affect statistical agencies, as in a number of issues concerning confidentiality and freedom of information, as well as in the issue of adjusting the census population counts. Congress frequently specifies particular data that it wishes to be collected (e.g., by the National Agricultural Statistics Service in the Department of Agriculture, the National Center for Health Statistics in the Department of Health and Human Services)
From page 23...
... Continual Development of More Useful Data Federal statistical agencies cannot be static. To provide information of continued relevance for public and policy use, they must continually anticipate data needs for fixture policy considerations and look for ways to develop data systems that can serve broad purposes.
From page 24...
... Statistical agencies have developed useful longitu~in~ surveys. However, because agencies are oriented toward the mission of their particular department, such surveys (and cross-sectional data activities as well)
From page 25...
... Some statistical agencies have developed detailed quality profiles for some oftheir major series. These have proved helpful tO experienced users and agency personnel responsible for the design and op.
From page 26...
... A good dissemination program provides data to users in forms that are suited to their needs. Data release may take the form of regularly updated time series, cross-tabulations of aggregate characteristics of respondents, and analytical reports that are made available in printed publications, on computer-readable media (e.g., CD-ROM)
From page 27...
... Such channels may include providing direct access to data on the Internet, depositing data products in libraries, establishing a network of data centers (such as the Census Bureau's state data centers) , and maintaining lists of individuals and organizations to notiff about new data.
From page 28...
... Cooperation with Data Users Users of federal statistical data span a broad spectrum of interests and needs. They include policy makers, planners, administrators, and researchers in federal agencies, state and local governments, the business sector, and academia.
From page 29...
... Agencies that lack strong legal protection for confidentiality should be especially careful not to give data providers stronger promises of conficlentiality than they can reasonably expect to honor. To give additional weight and stature to policies that statistical agencies have pursued for decades, OMB issued a Federal Statistical Confider~tiality Order on.June 27, 1997.
From page 30...
... Because of the disclosure risks associated with detailed tabulations and public-use microdata files, there is always a tension between the desire to safeguard confidentiality and the desire to provide broader public access to data. This dilemma is an important one to federal statistical agencies, and it has stimulated ongoing efforts to develop new statistical and administrative procedures to safeguard confidentiality while permitting more extensive access.
From page 31...
... A reason that respondents reply to statistical surveys is because they have been persuaded that their answers will be useful to the government or to society generally. Statistical agencies should respect this contribution by compiling the data and making them accessible to users in convenient forms.
From page 32...
... An Active Research Program Substantive Research anclAnalysis There are strong arguments for a statistical agency to have staff whose responsibility is to conduct objective substantive analyses of the data that the agency compiles, such as analyses that assess trends over time or compare population groups: · Agency analysts are in a position to understand the need for and purposes of the data and know how the statistics will be used. Such information must be available to the agency and understood thoroughly if the survey design is to produce the data required.
From page 33...
... Federal statistical agencies, frequently in partnership with academic researchers, pioneered the applications of statistical probability sampling, the national economic accounts, input-output models, and other analytic methods.
From page 34...
... Professional Advancement of Staff An effective federal statistical agency has personnel policies that encourage the development and retention of a strong professional staff who are committed to the highest standards of quality work. There are several key elements of such a policy: .
From page 35...
... federal statistical system consists of many agencies in different departments, each with its own mission. Nonetheless, statistical agencies do not and should not conduct their activities in isolation.
From page 36...
... The 1995 reauthorization of the Paperwork Reduction Act created the Interagency Council on Statistical Policy (ICSP) , formalizing an arrangement whereby statistical agency heads participate with OMB to coordinate federal statistical activities.
From page 37...
... In other cases, federal statistical agencies engage in cooperative data collection with state counterparts to let one collection system satisfy the needs of both. A number of such joint systems have been cleveloped, notably by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the National Agricultural Statistics Service, the National Center for Education Statistics, and the National Center for Health Statistics.
From page 38...
... No single agency, whether a statistical or program agency, could have produced the forum reports alone. Working together in this way, federal statistical agencies contribute to data more relevant to policy concerns and to a stronger statistical system overalls


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