Realizing the Potential of the American Community Survey Challenges, Tradeoffs, and Opportunities (2015) / Chapter Skim
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6 Survey Content
6 Survey Content
Pages 99-113
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From page 99... ...
The broad range of uses and nuances in data user needs also raises difficult questions about how to set priorities among the demands for survey content, without further increasing respondent burden. The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C.
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From page 100... ...
Although, as described below, outreach activities are currently under way to document the uses of the data, particularly at the federal level, content management is one of the areas for which close collaboration with the broader community of data users and a continuous feedback loop about how the questions are meeting data needs are essential in order to ensure that the potential benefits of the survey are maximized (see Recommendation 1, in Chapter 1)
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From page 101... ...
SURVEY CONTENT 101 BOX 6-1 Topics Included in the 2014 ACS Basic Demographics Population Questions Age Ancestry Sex Citizenship status Hispanic origin Disability Race Educational attainment Relationship Fertility Grandparents as caregivers Housing Characteristics, Language spoken at home Physical Marital history Acreage Marital status Agricultural sales Period of military service Bedrooms Place of birth Computer and Internet use School enrollment House heating fuel Residence 1 year ago Kitchen facilities Undergraduate field of degree Plumbing facilities Veteran status Telephone service available Veterans Administration Rooms s ervice-connected disability Units in structure rating Vehicles available Year of entry Year moved into unit Year structure built Housing Characteristics, Financial Business or medical office on Economic Questions property Class of worker Cost of utilities Food stamps benefit Condominium fee Health insurance coverage Insurance Income Mobile home costs Vehicles available Mortgage Work status last year Real estate taxes Industry Rent Journey to work Tenure Occupation Value of property Place of work Labor force status Questions Used to Administer the Survey Date Name Contact information Number of people at address
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From page 102... ...
This information is used to understand living arrangements and family characteristics, such as the number of people living alone or the number of children living with one parent, which informs the planning of federal programs, such as nutrition and education programs. Population Questions In addition to the basic demographic questions, the ACS includes questions aimed at understanding broader social and population characteristics and trends.
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From page 103... ...
The question about the existence of a business on the premises helps understand property values in context. In addition to helping determine fair market rents, questions about plumbing and kitchen facilities are used to identify areas eligible for public assistance programs
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From page 104... ...
General Services Administration's Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance and the Census Bureau's Consolidated Federal Funds Report, Reamer (2010) estimated that 184 federal assistance programs relied directly or indirectly on ACS data to help guide the distribution of $416 billion, or 29 percent of all federal assistance, while federal grant funding informed by the ACS accounted for $389.2 billion, or 69 percent of all federal grant funding.
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From page 105... ...
SURVEY CONTENT 105 Cost-Benefit Analysis In an effort to develop a framework that would facilitate an evaluation of the questions on the survey in the context of both their usefulness and the difficulty of obtaining quality information, the Census Bureau planned to conduct a cost-benefit analysis. For this analysis, it developed 19 decision criteria, 13 that measure each question's utility and ability to produce highquality data and 6 that measure the difficulty of obtaining the information: see Box 6-2.
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From page 106... ...
However, the condition of the housing stock has improved dramatically since questions about plumbing were first introduced in the 1940 census, and the availability of alternative data sources that capture this information, such as administrative records, may have also become more widespread. Broader Data User Input The Census Bureau content review was focused on obtaining information from federal agencies about their uses of the data, primarily because the applicable statutes are also at the federal level.
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From page 107... ...
As emphasized throughout the report, although national- and state-level ACS data have many important uses, the panel believes that the ability of the ACS to provide data with levels of disaggregation not available from other surveys is what makes the survey unique and argues that this is an important consideration when evaluating the survey's content. 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.
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From page 108... ...
Adding New Questions Under the Paperwork Reduction Act, the practical utility of all federal data collections has to be demonstrated, and respondent burden has to be kept to a minimum. Because participation in the ACS is required by law for those selected into the sample, additional guidelines exist to ensure that only questions that are well justified are included in the survey.
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From page 109... ...
For example, the content review asked agencies to describe these types of programmatic needs for ACS data. Regardless, the Census Bureau's content review was an effort to ensure that the ACS remains the appropriate vehicle for the collection of the data already on the survey and it was not intended to provide insights into the possible need for new questions.
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From page 110... ...
However, some of the items that have been considered as suitable candidates for investigation based on the data sources available include other housing items, such as real estate taxes, year built, and number of rooms, as well as veteran status, place of birth, public health insurance coverage, and income. The content review could shed further light on whether there might be promising research projects to pursue.
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From page 111... ...
The OMB Interagency Committee for the ACS is composed of representatives of federal agencies that have an interest in ACS data and is the primary source of requests for content changes, as well as a vehicle for communicating proposed changes to federal stakeholders. The ICSP-SACS charter for the ACS includes guidelines for content changes (Interagency Council of Statistical Policy Subcommittee for the American Community Survey, 2012)
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From page 112... ...
Moreover, funding cuts have further extended this extremely lengthy schedule. In terms of dropping questions, the charter of the ICSP-SACS states that this should be considered if questions are no longer needed because of a legal, regulatory, or administrative change or because there is not enough evidence of "regular use of estimates at small areas by any Federal Government program or by other users" (Interagency Council of Statistical Policy Subcommittee for the American Community Survey, 2012, p.
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From page 113... ...
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 guidelines)
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