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Realizing the Potential of the American Community Survey Challenges, Tradeoffs, and Opportunities (2015) / Chapter Skim
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Summary
Pages 1-12

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From page 1...
... However, due to inadequate sample sizes, a major challenge for the survey is producing estimates with adequate statistical precision for small geographic areas and small population groups. This challenge is a concern because of the unique role fulfilled by the long-form sample, and now the ACS, of providing data with a granularity that no other federal survey provides.
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From page 2...
... The panel thus offers an overarching priority recommendation. RECOMMENDATION 1: As a priority, the Census Bureau should establish a formal, institutionalized, standing group to provide ongo ing data user input on decisions related to the American Community Survey, and this standing group should include representation of data user organizations.
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From page 3...
... RECOMMENDATION 3: Efforts to improve the precision of the American Community Survey estimates for specific small governmental units should be focused on increasing the initial designated sample size while maintaining the optimal nonresponse sampling rate instead of increasing the subsampling rate to 100 percent.
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From page 4...
... RECOMMENDATION 6: The Census Bureau should evaluate the possibility of improving the American Community Survey's accuracy at a fixed cost by truncating nonresponse follow-up or using modeling techniques to replace some of the nonresponse follow-up, particularly for the more expensive data collection modes. RECOMMENDATION 7: The Census Bureau should conduct research on potential ways of identifying cell phone numbers associated with
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From page 5...
... RECOMMENDATION 11: The Census Bureau should conduct research to understand what types of devices are used by American Community Survey respondents to connect to the Internet and whether there are any associated data quality implications. DATA PROCESSING AND ANALYSIS The way data are processed can affect their quality and usefulness to users.
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From page 6...
... RECOMMENDATION 14: As a priority, the quality control and edit ing processes in the American Community Survey should be ongoing and as close to the data collection as possible, to ensure that problems are identified promptly and that their impact is minimized. RECOMMENDATION 15: The Census Bureau should evaluate whether procedural changes might improve the efficiency of the Ameri can Community Survey quality control operations.
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From page 7...
... RECOMMENDATION 19: The Census Bureau should continue research into alternative approaches for constructing and presenting measures of uncertainty for the American Community Survey that are suitable for data from complex survey designs and with small propor tions or samples, with the objective of rapidly adopting new methods without the defects apparent in current practice. RECOMMENDATION 20: The data disseminated from the American Community Survey should include both interval estimates (confidence or credible intervals)
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From page 8...
... RECOMMENDATION 21: The Census Bureau should revise the sup pression practices for the American Community Survey: rather than suppressing data due to concerns about lack of precision, users should be provided with access to all data that pass confidentiality review. The Census Bureau will have to be proactive about user education and provide adequate information about the precision of the data to enable users to decide whether the data are suitable for use to meet their specific analytic needs.
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From page 9...
... RECOMMENDATION 25: As a priority, the Census Bureau should conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the needs for the specific items on the American Community Survey, including nonfederal uses of the data. The evaluation should center on the level of disaggregation at
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From page 10...
... In all cases, it is important to maintain transparency about how the decisions are made. RECOMMENDATION 28: The Census Bureau should evaluate whether the scope and size of the current field test required as part of the process of adding a new question to the American Community Survey is optimal or whether a smaller scale pretest (and separate
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From page 11...
... SUMMARY 11 guidelines) may be adequate for minor questionnaire changes, allowing the survey to be more responsive to data user needs without sacrificing quality.
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Key Terms

  • american community
  • community survey
  • data users
  • data user
  • data products

  • acs data
  • administrative records
  • collection operations
  • user input
  • adaptive design

  • respondent burden
  • ing data
  • data processing
  • improve data
  • data quality

  • acs content
  • acs dug
  • reduce respondent
  • sample data
  • providing data

  • state data
  • census enumeration
  • enhance data
  • expensive data
  • accurate data

  • generate data
  • associated data
  • formal data
  • tracks data
  • optimizing data


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