Understanding the Quality of the 2020 Census Interim Report (2022) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Pages 11-22
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From page 11... ...
and collection of census responses would be carefully timed to be as concentrated around Census Day as possible. Doing so would not only promote the accuracy of the census count as of the Census Day reference moment but also help mitigate potential coverage problems -- for instance, making an early push to follow-up with nonresponding households in areas around colleges and universities to best capture student housing arrangements, and finishing main field operations at the end of July to minimize operational disruption from hurricane season.
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From page 12... ...
The resulting uncertainty prompted some difficult resource prioritization for the census, including the cancellation of some census field testing activities in 2017 and the consolidation of the 2018 End-to-End Census Test to one geographic site rather than three.6 Another major pressure emerged in March 2018 when commerce secretary Wilbur Ross issued a decision memorandum directing the addition of a question on U.S. citizenship status to the 2020 questionnaire.
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From page 13... ...
The COVID-19-induced pause would delay the start and completion of core census field operations by weeks and months, with substantial direct effects: months and years of planned "get out the count" activity and messaging was suddenly outmoded if not rendered impossible to implement; group quarters like college dormitories and health care facilities -- already challenging to count -- became even more formidable difficulties, with their populations forced to scatter or sequestered in unreachable space. The Census Bureau's National Processing Center suddenly found itself having to become a massive provider and deployer of personal protective equipment and other supplies, amidst severe national shortages of the same, as census field 7 See, for instance, numerous amicus curiae briefs filed with the U.S.
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From page 14... ...
On April 13, 2020, the Census Bureau issued a new timeline, extending census field data collection through October 31, 2020, and seeking a fourmonth extension in its data delivery deadlines; see Table 1.1. However, Congress did not act on this request,9 and the statutory deadlines loomed as the Bureau worked to resume field operations as conditions warranted.
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From page 15... ...
Each decennial census becomes the linchpin of the American information infrastructure, helping to shape decisions and programs for many years, and so it is of paramount importance that the operations of the decennial census and the quality of the resulting data be rigorously examined. Even more so than in previous decades, the nation and the full array of stakeholders in the decennial census face a daunting and difficult question relative to this particular census, conducted amidst circumstances so dire: Of what quality is the 2020 Census and its data?
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From page 16... ...
See Box 1.1 for further explanation. b Delivery deadlines set by 13 U.S.C.
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From page 17... ...
• Within hours, the Census Bureau announced that 2020 Census data collection would end on October 15. Association.13 Issuing a preliminary report in October 2020 (2020 Census Quality Indicators Task Force, 2020)
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From page 18... ...
. In the 2010 Census, attention changed to more existential and operational concerns, when highly publicized troubles with the Census Bureau's Field Data Collection Automation contract (and particularly its attempt to use handheld devices for data collection)
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From page 19... ...
That first meeting closed with a first operation-specific overview on address list development and Address Canvassing operations; Census Bureau staff could not present or discuss actual evaluation results because none of its internal evaluation/assessment reports are yet complete, but they provided an overview of the way the operation proceeded in the past, how it was planned to occur in 2020, and how it actually took place in light of the pandemic and other challenges. In its subsequent meetings, the panel requested that the Census Bureau do similar operational overviews on individual census operations or groups of related operations.
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From page 20... ...
Because the panel is just getting started in its analysis, and because the Census Bureau has yet to complete and release any of its own evaluation and assessment reports on 2020 Census operations, this first report is necessarily a plan and a framework for what is to come rather than a true interim, first-pass 15 This discussion session with 2020 Census field staff was meant to be suggestive, and not a representative sample of all levels of the field staff hierarchy. The Panel to Review the 2010 Census held a similar discussion with field staff at its November 2010 meeting in Washington, DC, but had the distinct advantage of being able to invite the field staff itself based on its extensive site visits.
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From page 21... ...
census context and outline the traditional means by which the quality of a decennial census is examined. In Chapter 3, we return to the story begun above in Section 1.1 -- the initial reviews of the 2020 Census that have been performed by the JASON advisory group and the ASA Task Force -- and provide additional detail on their findings.
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