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PART III: Education, Outreach, and Future Development, 7 Important Next Steps
Pages 225-260

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From page 225...
... PART III Education, Outreach, and Future Development
From page 227...
... Based on over 10 years of research and development by the Census Bureau, the ACS is intended to replace the decennial census long-form sample as a source of regularly updated demographic and socioeconomic information on the population and housing of states, counties, cities, and other governmental and statistical areas. The panel's assessment is that the ACS will deliver on its promise to provide more timely, frequent, and complete information than the longform sample.
From page 228...
... The chapter starts by describing an education program that is needed to inform users about what the ACS is, how to use its data products, and how interactions between the Census Bureau and the ACS user community can mutually benefit the ACS. The next section reviews the requirements for continued monitoring of basic indicators of data quality.
From page 229...
... While the Census Bureau has tried to facilitate the transition from the long-form sample to the ACS, the fact is that the full implementation of the ACS will be a sea change for data users. Appropriate reorientation on the part of users will not occur as a result of issuing new documentation or a new web site, essential as those elements of a data dissemination plan are.
From page 230...
... One approach is for the Census Bureau to work with organizations that have a mission to assist data users, such as State Data Centers, to help them develop simple data products and explanatory materials that are specifically designed for occasional or novice users. In addition, the Census Bureau itself could develop additional data products for the first-time, occasional, or resource-constrained user.
From page 231...
... A recent publication, developed with input from Census Bureau staff and data users, takes this approach (Taueber, 2006)
From page 232...
... Data access needs to be emphasized, via the American FactFinder web portal, data on CDs and DVDs, and data available from the Census Bureau's FTP sites. • The sampling error of estimates for 12-month, 36-month, and 60 month intervals and how to interpret variability.
From page 233...
... There are many organizations that the Census Bureau should strive to include in its network: • the State Data Centers (SDCs, http://www.census.gov/sdc/www/) ; • the Federal State Cooperative Program for Population Estimates (FSCPE, http://www.census.gov/population/www/coop/fscpe.html)
From page 234...
... In addition, individual SDCs have already developed helpful explanatory materials for the 2005 ACS data products (see, for example, "Ten Things to Know About the American Community Survey, 2005 Edition," prepared by the Missouri Census Data Center) .1 To move this initiative forward, the Census Bureau should support and encourage local hands-on workshops on the applications of ACS data.
From page 235...
... . The Census Bureau should conduct extensive analyses of news coverage of the 2005 ACS and revise and enhance its user education program and documentation accordingly, not only for the media, but also for other data users.
From page 236...
... Even though the Census Bureau empha sizes the use of the ACS for characteristics, not population counts, one-fifth of the articles explicitly focused on growth or decline in total population from 2000 to 2005. None of the articles discussed that, for many areas, population figures tion available to decision makers and will become an important national asset if it is used appropriately and to its full potential.
From page 237...
... Recommendation 7-4: The Census Bureau should establish an ongoing advisory group of experienced data users with whom to interact about
From page 238...
... The panel commends the Census Bureau for providing quality measures for ACS estimates on its web site. For these measures to be useful, it is important that users of the data access them and interpret them correctly.
From page 239...
... item nonresponse rates are increasing or decreasing and for which areas and groups. Similarly, it would be useful for the Census Bureau to analyze unit and item nonresponse rates separately by data collection mode (mail, computer-assisted telephone interviewing, CATI, computer-assisted personal interviewing, CAPI)
From page 240...
... (Taueber [2006[ provides additional examples for local area data users on computing standard errors and other aspects of working with the ACS.) The Census Bureau's guidance is available in its publication, Using Data from the 00 American Community Survey
From page 241...
... are provided in the "Accuracy Statement" for the PUMS in question.3 In addition, for the first time, the 2005 PUMS provides replicate weights for users to calculate direct estimates of sampling error that are more precise than those from the generalized variance estimation procedures. For standard errors of differences, the Census Bureau's guidance applies not only to comparing differences between two areas or population groups, but also to comparing differences between estimates for two points in time for which the individual standard errors are available.
From page 242...
... ; and the Survey of Income and Program Participation (U.S. Census Bureau, 1998)
From page 243...
... Results of experiments with alternative methods should also be included. More specifically, the outline might cover such headings as: • Sources of nonsampling and sampling errors and their extent and effects: o Sampling frame: completeness, currency, and accuracy of the Master Address File (MAF)
From page 244...
...  USING THE ACS: BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES o Questionnaire design and wording: effects on response rates, response variance, and response bias for content items; results of experiments with alternative wording. o Residence rules: how respondents and interviewers interpret the 2-month residence rule compared with the decennial census usual residence rule and the effects on population coverage in the ACS.
From page 245...
... earnings re cords with the Current Population Survey (CPS) and Survey of Income and Program Participation, respectively)
From page 246...
... BOX 7-2 2006 and 2007 American Community Survey Methods Panels "Methods panel" is a term used by the Census Bureau to refer to samples of households that are used for testing and experimentation for a continuing household survey. For the ACS, the Census Bureau fielded a 2006 methods panel (see Federal Register, vol.
From page 247...
... . The Census Bureau is to be commended for initiating the ACS methods panels.
From page 248...
... Many high-priority analyses are not costly in that they do not involve field data collection, or the costs can be shared with other programs in the Census Bureau. The panel recognizes, however, that Census Bureau analysts have many responsibilities, and the panel encourages the Bureau to augment its staff resources to the extent possible through fellowships, internships, and other collaborative arrangements with outside researchers.
From page 249...
... small-area information that was previously provided by the census long-form sample. Failure to address these seven topics could harm the quality of the ACS data and make it difficult for users to adapt their long-form-sample applications to this new survey with its continuous design.
From page 250...
... However, the costs can be spread over several Census Bureau programs, not just the ACS, given the many uses of the population estimates.
From page 251...
... Comparisons  with  Other  Data  Sources It is important that the Census Bureau periodically compare selected ACS estimates with the corresponding estimates from other surveys and administrative records -- for example, comparing ACS estimates of income and employment with those from the CPS and the IRS Statistics of Income, or comparing ACS estimates of housing characteristics with those from the American Housing Survey and administrative records. The Census Bureau established a precedent for this kind of work when it performed a large number of aggregate comparisons between estimates from the Census 2000 Supplementary Survey and the 2000 long-form sample; these comparisons helped establish the validity of the ACS (see Section 2-B)
From page 252...
... . Having the best automated tools and documented procedures possible will be essential to enable the Census Bureau's analysts to do a good job of data quality review under tight time schedules and constrained staff resources.
From page 253...
... The quality profile outline provided in Section 7-C.1 above lists other topics for research and evaluation in addition to those the panel specifically addressed. Although these topics were not singled out by the panel, they should not be lost sight of when the Census Bureau is allocating research resources.
From page 254...
... 7-D A VISION FOR THE FUTURE At the present time, the ACS is viewed by the Census Bureau and data users primarily as a replacement for the long-form sample. While the panel agrees with that thrust in the short term, neither the Census Bureau nor the user community should lose sight of the vast potential for the ACS to
From page 255...
... For example, the Current Population Survey (CPS) very likely provides more accurate measures of labor force, employment, and unemployment status than the ACS (see Section 2-B.2.e)
From page 256...
... Census Bureau researchers have conducted work on the potential for school lunch program records, earned income tax credit records, and Medicaid records to improve the SAIPE models. The SAHIE models of health insurance coverage for states and counties currently use data from the CPS ASEC, federal income tax records, food stamp records, Medicaid records, and census-based population estimates.
From page 257...
... To investigate the feasibility of producing part-year data for specified areas on a regular basis, the Census Bureau should conduct research on the extent to which the ACS monthly data exhibit significant seasonal variations in total population and key characteristics for localities expected to have such variations. It would be important to inform this analysis from the results of the test recommended by this panel and the Panel on Residence Rules in the Decennial Census on how respondents record their residence using the ACS 2-month rule compared with the census usual residence rule.
From page 258...
... Moreover, all ACS questions are mandatory, which makes it incumbent on the Census Bureau to consider the response burden of any new questions very carefully. 7-D.4 Improving Population Estimates There is a pressing need for the Census Bureau to conduct research on methods to improve the estimates of population by age, sex, race, and ethnicity that are used as controls for the ACS and serve so many other
From page 259...
... For example, as noted in Section 7-D.1 above, the monthly CPS, which provides the nation's official measure of unemployment, includes additional questions about work status beyond those used in the ACS to determine each respondent's labor force situation. Other surveys that overlap with the ACS include the American Housing Survey, the CPS Annual Social and Economic Supplement, the Survey of Income and Program Participation, the National Health Interview Survey, and the National Household Travel Survey.
From page 260...
... Indeed, the Census Bureau plans to adopt the MAF as the sampling frame for its other household surveys. In addition, responses to the ACS could be used to identify population groups of interest for oversampling in other surveys.


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