Envisioning the 2020 Census (2010) / Chapter Skim
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Letter Report
Letter Report
Pages 305-318
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From page 305... ...
Topic areas for research, eval uation, and testing that would come within the panel's scope include questionnaire design, address updating, nonresponse follow-up, cov erage follow-up, unduplication of housing units and residents, editing and imputation procedures, and other census operations. Evaluations of data quality would also be within scope.
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From page 306... ...
In addition, we believe that a very different alternative questionnaire experiment -- one that tries multiple approaches to improve collection of census residence information -- would be invaluable for the future of census questionnaire design. Internet Experimentation The use of the Internet for data collection in the decennial census presents important opportunities for cost reductions and improvements in
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From page 307... ...
can be tapped as the Census Bureau develops privacy safeguards for online response in planning such an experiment. Use of Administrative Records Administrative records offer substantial potential for both census cost reduction and quality improvements.
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From page 308... ...
Yet although a great deal about the utility of administrative records can be learned from post hoc study of data retained during the census, there are potentially useful possibilities for limited, experimental field work in 2010. For instance, with regard to the use of administrative records as a substitute for late-stage field enumeration, one possible experiment would involve variations in nonresponse follow-up or coverage follow-up protocols under which the number or format of follow-up interviews depended on administrative records information (either on an individual household basis or on an area basis)
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From page 309... ...
238–240) suggested that the Census Bureau "undertake a continuing research effort to assess the accessibility of facility records at group quarters facilities and to determine whether the existing data systems meet census data collection needs." We endorse this suggestion as it is an essential step to assessing the possibilities for using administrative records to supplement or, as necessary, replace traditional enumeration in group quarters.
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From page 310... ...
These three research areas -- Internet data collection, the use of administrative records, and questionnaire redesign for residence rules -- are ones for which important benefits could be obtained through increases in census data quality or decreases in census costs or both. In the panel's assessment, the 2010 CPEX program should include work on these topics in order to ensure early progress in the 2020 census testing cycle.
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From page 311... ...
As a remedy, it has scheduled a number of small field tests of various components and sub-systems of the census process chain to attempt to identify as many potential flaws as possible prior to implementation. However, given that the operational control system for the field data collection system will not be ready until the summer or fall of 2009, the Census Bureau has decided against a comprehensive test of the entire field data collection process due to the lack of time to design and carry out such a test.
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From page 312... ...
Whatever the sampling rate, it is critical to retain sufficient data, preserving all relevant linkages, so that the result supports the examination of how the decennial census processes functioned for various subpopulations and domains. As an example, it is important to retain the information as to which addresses on the MAF were added or deleted by which census address improvement operations.
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From page 313... ...
Therefore, we recommend that -- as systems for the 2010 census are finalized by the Census Bureau and its contractors -- appropriate archival outlets be created for all systems, including components of the field data operational control system, so that the relevant data to construct a master trace database or "audit trail" of census processes are retained. Experts in automated audit processes could provide assistance to the Census Bureau in implementing a master trace system.
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From page 314... ...
Based on such estimates, if the cost reduction seems likely to be, at best, modest, the experiment should be eliminated or redesigned to include assessment of even fewer enumeration attempts or the use of administrative records in lieu of field data collection. In considering statistical power, 2000 data could have been used to estimate the percentage of housing units that first failed to return their mailed questionnaire, and then were enumerated in the 2000 census on either the fourth or fifth attempt during nonresponse follow-up.
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From page 315... ...
The Privacy Notification Experiment The privacy notification experiment will assess the effect of a message on the cover letter of the mailing package containing the census questionnaire regarding the uses of census data and the possible use of administrative records. The experiment includes two panels of 10,000 sampled households each (plus a control group without such notification)
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From page 316... ...
Possibly, this could be done through the separate administrative records experiment noted above, but bundling this as a single experiment may have some advantages, although it would increase the complexity of the currently planned experiment. The Alternative Questionnaire Experiment There are three parts to the proposed 2010 questionnaire experiment: (a)
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From page 317... ...
That is, although the addition of any question on the census form has an associated cost of processing and a possible decrease in overall data quality, the inclusion of this question could produce higher quality responses as to census residence and/or it could also affect the frequency of coverage follow-up interviews or their accuracy. Therefore, it is important to include plans in the experimental protocol that would attempt to evaluate this tradeoff, since this should be key to making any decisions about the inclusion of such a question in the 2020 census questionnaire.
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From page 318... ...
The Census Bureau has proposed four experiments to be conducted during the 2010 census, but the panel believes that they suffer from design flaws and, significantly, lack connection to potential visions for the 2020 census. The panel suggests that three topics that are given little or no weight in the current CPEX plan -- Internet data collection, use of administrative records in various census processes, and elicitation of accurate residence information -- have greater potential to decrease the cost and increase the quality of the 2020 census, and so should be built into the 2010 experimental program.
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